University of Missouri
4-0
SIU Edwardsville
1-3
@MizzouWBB Downs SIUE 75-46, Moves to 5-0 for Third Time Under Pingeton
11/24/2015 10:38:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Morgan Stock scores 14 points in the second quarter
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women's Basketball improved to 5-0 for the third time under head coach Robin Pingeton after racing to a 75-46 win over SIU Edwardsville (1-3) Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena. Mizzou was paced by a brilliant shooting mark from 3-point range as Pingeton's squad hit 11-of-32 shots from distance. Senior Morgan Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) led Mizzou with 14 points with all coming in the second quarter. The Tigers are now 2-0 all-time against SIUE.
"I'm really proud of the way our team came out of the gates," head coach Robin Pingeton said. "I think sometimes coming off a big, tough, emotional win like we did 48 hours before against Wake Forest, you worry a little bit as a coach that there might be a letdown. I just thought our kids were in a great place, they were dialed in, high energy."
Tuesday's win was sparked by a brilliant performance from the Tigers bench as it outscored SIUE 44-2. Stock sparked the bench effort with 14 points while forward Kayla McDowell (Cincinnati, Ohio) also tallied 11 points as well. Mizzou is averaging 33.6 points off the bench this season and is outscoring its opponents by nearly 19 points in bench scoring this season.
Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) tallied 10 points in her fifth game at Mizzou, scoring in double-figures in all five contests. In all, 12 Tigers scored on Tuesday with all but one player who played tallying at least one point as it was a true team effort.
Mizzou used a strong 3-point shooting effort to race out to a 43-13 lead midway through the second quarter. In fact, nine of Mizzou's first 13 field goals were made from beyond the arc with three different Tigers nailing triples. Stock led the way during that stretch, going 4-for-5.
The 3-point shooting was all Mizzou needed to take a 50-17 lead into the half. In all, the Tigers connected on 10 triples in the first 20 minutes, almost matching their total from the previous game against Wake Forest (11). Mizzou shot a blazing 50 percent (16-of-32) from the floor including a 10-of-20 mark from distance in the first half. Stock led all players at the break with 14 points while nine different Mizzou players entered the scoring column in the first half.
Mizzou's bench posted 26 of the team's 50 first-half points. SIUE had no points from its bench in the first 20 minutes. Mizzou forced nine first-half turnovers from SIUE and held the Cougars scoreless for the final 3:44 of the second quarter.
SIUE opened the second half on a 9-0 run before Sierra Michaelis (Mercer, Mo.) found a streaking Lindsey Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) for a layup after tremendous ball movement from the Tigers. SIUE continued the run, outscoring Mizzou 17-5 over the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Juanita Robinson (Chicago, Ill.) hit a 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining in the quarter to stake Mizzou to a 63-36 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Mizzou carried its momentum from Robinson's late 3-pointer into the fourth, opening a 69-36 lead after a crossover drive that led to a layup by Carrie Shephard (Steele, Mo.) with 7:27 remaining. Mizzou cruised from there, closing things out. One of the keys to the game was Mizzou slowing SIUE from distance, holding the Cougars to just 1-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Mizzou returns to play on Friday afternoon with a 2 p.m. CT tipoff vs. Northeastern in Moraga, California, on the campus of Saint Mary's. The Tigers will play Saint Mary's at 4 p.m. CT Saturday to wrap up the Hilton Concord Thanksgiving Classic.
For all the latest on Mizzou Women's Basketball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com. You can also keep up on social media by liking us on Facebook (Mizzou Women's Basketball) and following us on Twitter and Instagram (@MizzouWBB).
Postgame Notes
- With the win, Mizzou improved to 5-0 for the third time under head coach Robin Pingeton, now in her sixth season at the helm of the program.
- Mizzou improved to 2-0 all-time against SIU Edwardsville with both meetings coming under Pingeton. The last meeting was a 59-48 win by Mizzou on Nov. 10, 2013 at Mizzou Arena.
- Mizzou assisted on 14 of 23 field goals on Tuesday. Mizzou has now assisted on 61.2-percent of its field goals in 2015-16 (76-of-124).
- Mizzou had two players – S. Cunningham and Morgan Stock – score in double figures at the 5:14 mark of the second quarter. The duo had 21 points at that time. SIUE did not reach the 20-mark plateau until the 8:48 mark of the third quarter.
- Morgan Stock scored all 14 of her first-half points in the second quarter. It was the third time in five quarters that Mizzou had a single player post 14 points in a quarter (S. Cunningham did so in the second and fourth quarters against Wake Forest). Stock had more points in the second quarter than SIUE did in either the first and second quarters as a team (seven and 10, respectively).
- Mizzou limited SIUE to just 17 points in the first half marking the third half this season that Mizzou has held an opponent to fewer than 20 points.
- Mizzou connected on its first three field goal attempts, all from distance. Two came from junior Sierra Michaelis and the other from Sophie Cunningham.
- Over its last 10 home nonconference games, Mizzou is averaging 73.0 points per game dating back to last season. That number has increased in 2015-16 as Mizzou has averaged 84.7 points over three nonconference home games. Mizzou is 3-0 in those three contests and outscoring its opponents by 31 points per game.
- Mizzou is limiting opponents to just 50.6 points per game this season.
- Mizzou's defense has been outstanding so far this season, holding its opponents to fewer than 60 points in four of five contests and fewer than 50 in three.
- Mizzou held SIUE leading scorer Shronda Butts to eight points despite the fact that she came into the game averaging 24.7 points per contest. She was coming off of a 34-point performance at Western Illinois and 23 the last time out at Oklahoma State.
- Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham has now scored in double-figures in all five games in her Mizzou career after scoring 10 in the first quarter on Tuesday night.
- Senior guard Morgan Stock now has 90 career 3-pointers, just 10 away from cracking into the Mizzou all-time top-10 in career 3-pointers made.
- Mizzou's bench outscored SIUE, 44-2, in the win. Remarkably, the 44 points off the bench are not a season-high for Mizzou, which put up 56 on Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Mizzou is averaging 33.4 points per game off the bench and outscoring opponents in bench scoring by 18.8 per contest.
Postgame Quotes
Mizzou head coach Robin Pingeton
Opening statement…
"First of all, I would just say I'm really proud of the way our team came out of the gates. I think sometimes coming off a big, tough, emotional win like we did 48 hours before against Wake Forest, you worry a little bit as a coach that there might be a letdown. I just thought our kids were in a great place, they were dialed in, high energy. From top-to-bottom, I thought it was an outstanding first two quarters. Then the flip side of that, obviously disappointed about the last two quarters and we talked about that in the locker room. I think one of the things that our fans really appreciate about our team is how hard they compete. We've just got to take more pride in our home court. That doesn't mean we're going to outscore and win every quarter that we play throughout the season, but we just felt like we took the foot off the throttle a little bit and we don't want to do that. We want to play at a certain level, a certain standard, and so a great opportunity to talk about that and just challenge our players moving forward, to make sure we've got the right locker room talk at halftime, the right mindset. But overall, I thought you saw some really good basketball in the first twenty minutes and got a little bit sloppy. Things got away from us a little bit in the second half but I'm proud of our team."
On whether she was surprised at the slow start to the third quarter…
"Well, I was surprised. I think we've got a very mature team. I've seen so much resiliency from them already this season, just how unselfish they are and just the way we battled. Like I said before, we're not going to win every quarter that we play, but that's one thing I know these girls really take a lot of pride in. They want to compete and let it all hang out for 40 minutes. It's human nature, you're up 50-17 at half and I don't think there's anything tricky behind it. I just think we took our foot off the throttle and came out too lax. It's early in the season and we've got to learn from it, like Lianna [Doty] said and I've got a lot of confidence in this group that that will be, if we're in this situation again, I think the locker room talk at halftime is going to look a lot different. That's just the kind of team we have. They're so resilient and they're really chasing something special this year. It's a great group, I'm proud of them. Like I said, I was more concerned about how we come out in games. I felt like SIU Edwardsville, knowing they were picked to win the OVC, watching some film on them, I knew they had some talent. I knew they had some kids that really could attack off the bounce. I was more concerned about how we come out out of the gates, not as much in the second half. It's a game of basketball, it's 40 minutes and there's always opportunities to get better."
On whether Kayla McDowell had her best game of the season…
"I think both she and Lianna [Doty] did. I don't know if I really have the exact answer for you, but one thing we spend so much time talking about on this team is the front of the jersey and not to get caught up in the back of the jersey. We've got kids that are really, really invested but they're also really competitive and driven. I think it's a balance that they're really trying to be a great teammate and be all about the front of the jersey, and at some point in there do you lose a little bit of your competitive spirit because you're supposed to be about the front of the jersey and you're supposed to be a great teammate. As a team, we talked about that over the last 48 hours, what that looks like and what that feels like, and how we don't want to lose that. I want fourteen kids that want to be in a starting position. I want fourteen kids that want more minutes, but I want to make sure that, at the end of the day, when we walked between the lines it's about the front of the jersey. Just to understand the balancing act between giving it up for your teammates and, at the same time, night in and night out, being a fierce competitor in practice and in games. I don't know if sometimes it just takes time to balance those two out and understand that, but I thought they both played really well and certainly their best games of the season so far."
Mizzou junior guard Lianna Doty
On tonight's victory…
"Obviously, we feel really good about how we came out tonight. That's something that we work really hard at and bring that type of energy every game. From that point, we are all really happy. It's a great opportunity to learn from tonight's second half where we're up 30 points and struggled a bit. If we can take this lesson and learn from it then that's great. We have to bring it every single game and every single quarter."
On what was working well tonight offensively…
"I think we had great spacing and ball movement. We were really hitting the lanes well. A lot of people stepped up and hit shots. We're putting time in the gym and making those open shots and making the extra pass. I think that really contributed to tonight's success."
On how comfortable the team has felt so far this season…
"I think each year this program takes it to another level. A lot more girls have been in this team's system and understand our type of offense. They understand how to make the extra pass. Through these first five games it has been good, but we're still not satisfied. There's a lot of things that we want to get better at."
Mizzou senior guard Morgan Stock
On her second-quarter performance…
"I just credit that to my teammates. I have a great support system whether I'm on or off performance wise. They've been there through it all. They really help pull myself up and knock those shots down."
– MIZZOU –
