University of Missouri
17-4, 4-4
LSU
8-13, 2-6
#22 @MizzouWBB Outlasts LSU, 52-46
1/28/2016 11:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Mizzou reaches 17 wins before February for first time since 1976-77
COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 22 Mizzou Women's Basketball (17-4, 4-4) earned a 52-46 victory over LSU (8-13, 2-6) on Thursday night at Mizzou Arena. It is the first time that Mizzou has won 17 games before the month of February since 1976-77, which was the third year in the program's history.
Mizzou was led by a balanced scoring attack as eight different players scored with junior Lindsey Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) leading the way by tying her career-high with 16 points. Senior Morgan Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) gave Mizzou a much-needed scoring lift in the second half with three triples. She finished with 12 points, connecting on 4-of-6 field goals from distance. Mizzou's bench, led by Stock, was the difference as it outscored LSU's 21-6.
Mizzou raced out to a 16-4 lead, hitting six of its first eight shots from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. LSU seemed to get the last basket of the first quarter to cut the lead to 19-10, but Juanita Robinson (Chicago, Ill.) nailed a half-court shot at the buzzer to bring Mizzou's lead back to 12 at 22-10.
That was part of an 8-0 run that extended past the five-minute mark of the second quarter that opened a 27-10 lead. LSU got back into the game, but Mizzou held LSU scoreless over the final three minutes of the first half and ended the half on a 6-0 run. Mizzou held a 33-16 lead heading into the break, matching the largest lead of the game.
Mizzou's bench had 12 of the 33 points at the half and Cunningham led the team with nine points at the break. Eight different players scored in the first half and five different players knocked down shots from distance. Pingeton's team also had nine assists on 12 field goals in the opening 20 minutes.
LSU scored the first 15 points of the third quarter, holding Mizzou scoreless until a Lindsey Cunningham 3-pointer swished through at the 2:34 mark, ending the run. Mizzou was outscored 19-4 in the third quarter, but a big 3-pointer by Stock early in the fourth extended Mizzou's lead back to five at 40-35.
That was the first of back-to-back possessions that stock hit a 3-pointer, sparking a 6-0 run to move Mizzou's lead to 43-35 with six minutes remaining, prompting an LSU timeout. Mizzou played lockdown defense in that span, not allowing LSU to score until the 2:35 mark of the fourth quarter, an 8:53 scoring drought for LSU.
In fact, Mizzou held LSU to just three field goals over the final 12:02 of the game and key 3-pointers by Stock helped Mizzou pull away for the win. All three of the field goals came with less than a minute left.
Mizzou will be back in action on Sunday at Ole Miss at 4 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
For all the latest on Mizzou Women's Basketball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MizzouWBB) and like the team on Facebook (Mizzou Women's Basketball) and Instagram (MizzouWBB).
POSTGAME NOTES
- With the win, Mizzou records 17 wins before the month of February for the first time in program history since 1976-77, when the Tigers went 20-6.
- Mizzou defeated LSU for the first time since Jan. 1, 1988, when Missouri defeated LSU in Baton Rouge, La., 67-51. Mizzou improves to 3-6 all-time against LSU.
- The Tigers started the game on a 13-2 run, fueled by six points from redshirt junior guard Lindsey Cunningham.
- Lindsey Cunningham tied career highs in points (16), three-point field goals made (3) and free throws made (5). Cunningham scored in double-digits for the third time this season.
- With nine rebounds in the game, junior Jordan Frericks moved into eighth place in program history for career rebounds with 710, surpassing Tracy Ellis (1895-88), who had 707 career rebounds.
- Senior guard Morgan Stock sank four three-pointers in the game, which ties a season-high for the third time and for the second consecutive game. She has drained 11 triples over the last three games and scored in double figures for the fourth time this season.
- Stock had two steals in the game, marking the first time this season she has had a game with multiple steals.
- Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham had three steals, the fifth time this season she has posted three or more.
- Senior forward Michelle Hudyn grabbed four rebounds, the most she has had in a game since Nov. 24 when she also pulled down four boards vs. SIU Edwardsville.
- Mizzou improves to 11-1 at home on the season, 14-0 when leading at half (33-16), and 16-1 when outrebounding the opponent (32-26).
- Thursday's crowd of 3,397 marked the eighth-straight home contest of 3,358 or more fans at Mizzou Arena.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Mizzou head coach Robin Pingeton
Opening statement…
"I'm really proud of the way our girls came out of the gates but I'm really disappointed in our second half. There's a lot of unbelievable ball movement that first five minutes of the game, maybe some of the best five minutes of basketball I've seen. I loved the ball movement and loved the extra pass, obviously knocking down shots. We came out of the gates in the second half and just lost our focus and lost our discipline and got a little sloppy, Give LSU a lot of credit, that's the way they like to play because of their depleted roster and they settled in and did some nice things in the second half. We are not going to give back the win and we found a way to finish it off. You look at the first time in a long time they've won 17 games in January. It's the first time they've beat LSU. We are going to take the positives and learn from some of the things that maybe didn't go the way we wanted them to in the second half and we are going to keep on moving forward."
On the importance of defense…
"It was really important. That's what we kept talking about in the timeout. We haven't faced a lot of zone. I thought out of the gates we handled it really well. I n the second half I should've put a post at that high post and just let her stay and bring my other post short corner to short corner and let the guards play off them. Out of the gates we seemed to be in a pretty good place. In the second half we got a little sloppy and missed some layups. Those are the daggers that you take care of, the easy shots that put them at bay a little bit but we missed those and I can't emphasize enough in this league how the importance defense and rebounding is because that's the only thing you can really hang your hat on night in and night out."
On keeping the team focused…
"Well you hope with a veteran group that you would be regroup a little bit and there's a fine line there. You certainly don't want to start yanking kids and start to play with their confidence level. You've got to be able to play through that and learn from it and move on to the next play but how many of those error passes do you allow to happen so that's the balancing act with that. I don't know as a coach that you always nail it but you do the best you can. I thought about putting Cierra Porter out there in the second half. I really was hoping we could get through this game without using her. She needs that extra day for her knee. At that point I don't know if Cierra would have been at her best coming in during the fourth quarter not having played. I had enough confidence in the rest of the team that they could pull this one off without her. There were a lot of decisions down the stretch there. As a coach you are not going to t get all of them right but I am proud of our kids for beating LSU. This is the first time we've done this in a long time. They were talking last night at practice about getting back into the routine of classes and juggling all that. It's that time of the year. It's SEC ball and late January and it's not always going to be pretty. If you look at how LSU plays they've had some pretty low scoring games and they've been in every game they've played so far in the SEC except for one. Even the way Florida plays, it's just SEC basketball and there's not an easy night out."
On relying on the seniors…
"Sierra Michaelis probably didn't have one of her better nights for us and Sophie Cunningham was struggling too and you hope to be able to rely on your seniors a little bit. I think Maddie and Morgan Stock both move so well without the ball and get that zone. What we needed was more movement. We needed to get the ball inside more. You've got to be able to rely on your seniors down the stretch. I think against Florida our seniors were huge for us. Maddie Stock might have missed some shots but she came down to the defensive end and got some key deflections for us. I thought those were at crucial times. When things aren't going well you hope to be able to rely on your seniors.
On importance of Lianna Doty…
"I think LIanna Doty is just starting to get back to what we had seen before her injury. I do think she's still coming back from a tough blow she took in that Texas A&M game. I think it rocked her world a little bit. She's still trying to fight through that a little bit but this is a good time of year to have Doty start to play at the level she is capable of. If you look at her stat line, I don't think that dictates the game that she had but at this time of the year you want all of your kids playing a little bit better than they were two months ago."
On turnovers…
"It wasn't pretty. We ended the first half with five and in the second half we just got soft and undisciplined. WE didn't do what we needed to do. You look at the Florida game and ask if this is reoccurring but I think the turnovers in the Florida game were completely different than the turnovers that we had tonight. We just need to get our kids to understand the standard that we want to play at and understand the importance of one possession at a time. You look at different kid and whose turnovers they had and they are different tonight than they were two days ago. Our goal going into tonight's game was 12 or less turnovers. We were at five at the half and then we just got careless with the ball. IN the SEC it's great attention to detail. It's one possession at a time. It's a different feel if people are up our girl an d its just trap and defense. I thought the turnovers we had tonight were just soft, poor decision passes and we haven't had those quite as much has of late. All we can do is watch tape and help our kids understand the importance of each possession and we will go back to the drawing board to do that."
On the depth of the bench…
"I think our non-conference looked a little bit different than our conference play in regards to how often we went to our bench. On any given night, Juanita Robinson, you've seen her play some really good minutes this year. Michelle Hudyn who is our third post off the bench usually comes in and gives us a great spark. You have to give our kids credit as hard as it is to consistently, day in and day out, put something bigger than them at the forefront of everything they are doing and the front of the jersey. They've really done a good job of that this year. Our seniors haven't surrendered. I think our team is in a really good place in regards to what we are trying to get done and what we've gotten done, what's behind us and what's in front of us and the importance of keeping one step forward every day."
Redshirt junior guard Lindsey Cunningham
On what it took to pull out the victory…
"We just had to make sure we stuck together. We kept saying they had their run, and it was time to respond. I think most important we stuck together and then we kind of got back to the game. But like she said, we kind of got away from it. We knew in those final minutes the most important thing was to get back to the game play and just play solid defense."
On big runs during the first half…
"I think our ball movement looked really, really good. When we were knocking down shots we got good ball movement, it was in and out and we weren't just passing around the perimeter. We have to be able to make those adjustments and stick to the things that are working for us for the entirety of the 40 minutes."
Senior guard Morgan Stock
On finding her range in the fourth quarter…
"Those shots usually pump me up and pump my team up, so that's usually what I'm thinking when I'm out there. [It was] something to get us going."
On her standout performances the last three games…
"I think I'm going to give credit to my coaches and my team and everything. They have been keeping my head in it and pushing me to work on my shot and get better. I think without their support we wouldn't be where we are."
