As the clock ticked below five seconds to go in the first quarter, Tigers point guard Mama Dembele fired a pass to Sara-Rose Smith. Smith, who entered the game as just a 17.6% shooter from beyond the arc, faked a drive to the basket and got her defender to bite, stepped back and drilled a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded before shouting back at a raucous and energized Missouri bench.
It was that kind of night for Missouri women’s basketball.
The Tigers snapped a six-game losing streak with an emphatic 86-69 win over a Vanderbilt team that itself had lost seven of its past eight contests. Regardless of opponent, Missouri (15-8, 4-6 Southeastern Conference) entered its matchup against the Commodores as a non-negotiable in keeping its tournament hopes alive.
“When you go on a six-game losing streak, teams either break or find a way to break down barriers,” MU coach Robin Pingeton said. “There’s a lot of emotion, there’s a lot of frustration. That little voice starts to creep in, and so you’ve got to battle within and you’ve got to battle together. We just needed one, and now it’s done after this evening.”
Missouri looked like a team playing with urgency, running all over Vanderbilt (10-13, 1-8) in the first quarter. The Tigers scored 26 points in the first frame, more than they scored in the first half of either of their previous two matchups, and finished the quarter on a 21-5 run to go into the second with a 26-12 advantage.
Vanderbilt brought plenty of pressure on defense early, attempting to turn over a Missouri team that at times has been loose with the ball. The Tigers, however, responded well, moving the ball effectively and turning it over just five times in the first half.
That allowed Missouri to get in rhythm offensively. Both Lauren Hansen and Hayley Frank, the Tigers’ top-scoring duo, got in a groove early. Frank finished the first half with 12 points, and Hansen dropped 11 while Smith and Ashton Judd combined for 16 off the bench.
Missouri connected on half of its 32 shots in the first half and finished with 11 assists on its 16 baskets. Meanwhile, the Commodores were held to just 34.6% from the field and went 6-for-13 from the free-throw line.
“I felt like it was just a matter of time before those shots start to fall for us,” Pingeton said. “I thought we did a good job playing fast. It was fun to see those girls knock down some of their shots. They worked really hard, and it’s fun to see.”
The Tigers didn’t let up in the second half. The Tigers rolled out a lineup of Dembele, Hansen, Frank, Smith and Judd to start the second half and rode it for nearly eight minutes before making a substitution. Missouri went 8-for-10 with the lineup, adding 19 more points in the eight-minute span.
The Tigers entered the fourth quarter up 22 and grew their lead to 24 before Vanderbilt made six of its final nine shots with the game out of reach. Missouri finished the half shooting 65.4% from the field and hitting six of its eight 3-pointers.
“It was ‘throw-a-punch Thursday,’ so we talked about throwing the first punch,” Frank said. “That was the mentality when we went into halftime: ‘We’re going to get keep punching. Keep our foot on the gas and just keep playing the way we did in the first half.’”
The Tigers finished the game shooting 56.9%, their highest mark of the season, and finished with 21 assists, their second-highest total of the year. Missouri also hit 11 of its 22 3-point attempts.
Smith finished with a career-high 16 points and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, while Judd kicked in another 11 points off the bench. Frank reached the 20-point mark for the second game in a row, finishing with a game-high 25, while shooting 66% on the game.
Lauren Hansen notched 22 points, marking the second time this season Hansen and Frank each reached 20 in the same game. The senior guard went 4-for-8 from deep and finished 9-for-16, the first time she’s hit on more than half of her shots since the Tigers’ matchup against Illinois on Dec. 18.
“When you work so hard on your craft and things just aren’t flowing for you, it’s hard,” Pingeton said of Hansen. “I’m happy for her and couldn’t be more happy for the team.”
Missouri looks to make it two in a row at 4 p.m. Sunday at Mizzou Arena against Alabama. It’s the second meeting of the season between the two, with Missouri escaping with a 66-65 win in the first matchup in Tuscaloosa.
Up Next What: Missouri vs. Alabama When: 4 p.m. Sunday Where: Mizzou Arena Watch: SEC Network