COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women's Basketball (20-6, 7-6) topped Arkansas (10-15, 5-7) 69-48 Sunday afternoon at Mizzou Arena. The resounding win gives the Tigers 20 victories on the season, the most for the program since the 2005-06 campaign.
Senior guard Morgan Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) led the way for Mizzou, pouring in a game-high 17 points. She tied a career-high with five made 3-pointers. Stock was joined in double digits by junior forward Jordan Frericks (Quincy, Ill.), who finished with 15 points, and Juanita Robinson (Chicago, Ill.), who scored 11 in 20 reserve minutes.
Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) dished out a career-high eight assists and pulled down a team-high five rebounds. Frericks and Cierra Porter (Columbia, Mo.) also grabbed five boards.
The beginning of the first quarter saw the lead change hands five times, and both teams were shooting the ball well. The Tigers 12-2 run, sparked by a sliding steal made by redshirt junior guard Lianna Doty (St. Louis, Mo.), who tied a season-high with five assists.
Mizzou led 19-10 at the end of the first period and used a 23-7 second quarter to pull away for good. The Tigers dished an assist on all 16 made baskets in the first half, while only turning the ball over twice, which was a season low.
The lead grew as large as 31 points midway through the third quarter. Mizzou finished with 20 assists, which tied the high mark during SEC play.
The Tigers shot 44 percent (22-for-50) from the floor, 33 percent (8-for-24) from beyond the 3-point arc and 90 percent (17-for-19) at the free throw line. Arkansas was limited to 33 percent shooting (20-for-60) and a 1-for-12 mark from long range.
Mizzou has a bye on Thursday and will return to action at Auburn for a 2 p.m. CT tipoff Sunday, Feb. 21 on SEC Network Plus/WatchESPN.
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
- Mizzou is now 6-11 all-time against Arkansas with a 4-4 record during games played in Columbia.
- The Tigers are 13-2 this year at Mizzou Arena.
- Mizzou is 15-1 when scoring 60-plus points, 9-0 when allowing under 50 points, 17-0 with a higher field goal percentage, 16-0 when leading at halftime and 19-2 when outrebounding the opponent.
- Morgan Stock tied her career-high with five 3-pointers and set a new season-high. She moved into seventh program history with 119 triples, surpassing Stacy Williams (1990-94).
- Lianna Doty tied her season-high assists with five. She also dished out at Texas A&M on Jan. 21.
- Sophie Cunningham set a new career-high with eight assists.
- The Tigers assisted on all 16 baskets during the first half and finished with 20 assists on 22 made field goals.
- The Tigers had the fewest turnovers in the first half this season with two. The last time Mizzou had fewer than two turnovers in a half was on at Vanderbilt on Feb. 22, 2015. They tallied one in that first half.
- This is the fifth time this season the Tigers have held the opponent to 17 points or less in the first half. The last time was on Jan. 28 when LSU was held to 16.
- Mizzou has tied its season-high of 20 assists in SEC play this season. The last time they recorded 20 assists was on Jan. 28 at Texas A&M.
- The crowd of 4,766 was the 11th-largest in program history and the fifth of at least 4,000 at Mizzou Arena this season. Mizzou has recorded at least 3,028 fans in each of the last 11 home games and the Tigers are averaging 3,857 for the season. During seven SEC home games, Mizzou is averaging 4,667 in attendance.
- $1 from every ticket sold on Sunday was donated to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Mizzou wore pink jerseys in honor of the Play 4 Kay cancer initiative.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Robin Pingeton
Opening statement…
"I appreciate everybody coming out. Really, really proud of our girls. I just thought they really competed hard. I really liked their defensive intensity. We hit a little bit of a speed bump there in that fourth quarter, but you know it's hard to come in when you haven't been playing a lot of minutes, and late in the game. But I thought overall, just a great program win for us. You factor in that it's a twenty-win season, the first time in ten years, only the third time in twenty-five years. That's really, really exciting for the growth of our program. I think the last couple games, our shot selection, our ball movement, the poise that we've been playing with is more what we were accustomed to n the non-conference, and I think it's two games that we can continue to just build off of. That's exciting. At the end of the season you want to be playing your best basketball, and we hit a speed bump about a week and a half ago that wasn't very fun for any of us, but the way the girls have responded and came back to practice, and their execution, give them all of the credit. So, happy for them to have this success, and a big win for us tonight."
On Lianna Doty's injury…
"I can [give an update]. I think it's just an ankle sprain. I think she sprained it pretty good. I thought Lianna played probably the best minutes that she's played all season, and I think if we had to have her in the second half she could have went, but I thought it was important that, if at all possible, we rest her. I think she's going to be okay. What a great time for a bye week."
Whether she felt the team was firmly in control throughout the game…
"I did. I thought that from out of the gates, but I had a really good feeling all week. I just think we practiced well. Our execution, our attention to detail, our discipline, has been really good, and I felt that going into the Alabama game. And then the way we came back and just our focus. We didn't do a lot in practice on Friday, but yesterday going through scout, shootaround today, I think they're in a really good place. I think the girls alluded to it. That's a credit to them. I think they kind of got it figured out a little bit. That doesn't mean that we're going to play perfect basketball, but I think we were able to regroup after that tough week and a half. I think we still have things to shore up, like Sophie [Cunningham] said, but I think we're in a really good place right now."
On the importance of Juanita Robinson's minutes in the game…
"Well, really important, especially just because we haven't done a lot with her at that point position. With Juanita, we just keep asking her just to slow down and to really keep it simple. We want her to take some more ownership as a senior. It's hard. She's in a tough role in regards to her minutes being so up and down, but we wanted her to really embrace the minutes that she does get. I thought she did a really nice job tonight."
On whether she thinks the low number of turnovers were a result of pace…
"I do. I think we were talking about playing quick but not in a hurry, and we said forget that, let's just slow it down. I think our kids just doing a better job of recognizing tempo of the game, opportunities, stronger with the ball, not trying to force the action. Just great team play."
On how it feels to win in a dominant fashion…
"Arkansas is a really good team, and obviously they really challenged us down there and we didn't have an answer for what they were doing. But to see our girls regroup and to win the way that we did tonight, I thought it was three quarters of some of our best basketball that we've played in a long time. That's exciting. It's exciting to see, towards the end of the season, for us to be able to hopefully start to pick up some momentum. Again, like I said, we've still got work to do, but it's a much better feeling than we had two weeks ago."
On high assist number…
"It's a pretty impressive stat. I felt like there was games in the non-conference where our assist to shot ratio was pretty darn good. I don't know if we ever had quite that high. Someone told me in the first half that we had 16 assists on 16 field goals. I think that is when we are at our best and it's so exciting to see us getting back to that style of play of unselfish basketball but also being shot ready for when you get an opportunity to be able to knock them down. We are going to need all that and some more down this last stretch of regular season play."
On the starting lineup…
"We don't talk a lot about it. We don't try to make a big of a deal out of that starting lineup. Certainly, Sierra Michaelis is a big reason why we are at where we are at today. When we go through a slump that is not just on one person. We felt it was important to shake it up. It's been fun to see Morgan embrace it. I think Sierra Michaelis probably could not be happier for Morgan Stock. That is just the kind of girls we have on this team. I have no idea and haven't thought that much about it."
On Morgan Stock…
"Morgan has gotten shots all year; she is just able to knock them down right now. So many times when you are in a slump you start to feel sorry for yourself and play the victim but Morgan has been doing a great job of getting in the gym outside of practice and getting game like shots. Kudos to her because sometimes even as a senior it would be easy to throw in the towel. It's my senior year, I'm not shooting the ball very well and woe is me type attitude but she has not done that. She has done the exact opposite. Her and Maddie; Maddie continues to get in too. There is going to be a game yet this year that Maddie is going to knock down those same kinds of shots. She has the ability to. She maybe has not had a chance to get in the rhythm that Morgan has but Maddie and Morgan are both tremendous 3-point shooters and when they are on, they are a ton to defend."
On Sophie Cunningham…
"I think so many times you get validation of how good you are by how many points you score. Sophie has had other games like that. I think there was one out in California where she didn't score but her assists and rebounding were outstanding. I can't think of too many bad shots that Sophie has taken all season long. I think she is very unselfish and she is all about the front of the jersey. Whatever kind of role she can play to help impact our team's success she is absolutely willing to do."
On the last Arkansas game…
"I'd be shocked if it wasn't. We didn't spend a lot of time talking about it. We only talked about it a little bit. That game didn't feel very good at all. You are not going to play perfect. Sometimes you are going to have tough losses but that one felt a little bit different. We have two fan buses that go down and we felt bad for them. We just didn't like anything about that game and we all took it pretty hard. It's not that we had it marked on our calendar. The girls maybe talked about that but it's nothing that we talked about as a team. When the opportunity opened up to play them again I know our girls were going to make sure that they were ready to go."
Senior guard Morgan Stock
On motion offense today …
"I think it is just something we have been working on in practice for the past week, and it has been a big focus for us so I think we have finally figured out how it works."
On confidence on shot…
"I am pretty confident. I like to think that every shot I shoot is going to go in, so hopefully it always does."
On what it means to reach 20 wins…
"Well me being a senior, this is my fourth year. It is a really exciting thing because last year I really wanted to get 20 wins, but we ended with 19, so it is a huge deal and we still have more games to go. It is a cool feeling to think that we can get even better."
Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham
On a career-high eight assists…
"I just think it is my teammates cutting. When I penetrate they collapse on me so I am going to dish it off for easy layups."
On team peaking at right time…
"I really do, like we said at the beginning of the season we have such a deep bench so anyone can step up on any night. We are starting to peak right when we need to. We still have little things to fix up here and there, but I think as a team we are in a really good spot right now."
On passing more than shooting tonight…
"Honestly, I don't really care as long as we are scoring. I am just going to do what I need to for us to get the ball in the hole. Tonight it was assists, but that is my teammates getting open and me giving them the ball when they need it, so props to them."
Junior forward Jordan Frericks
On defending Jessica Jackson…
"Just keep the ball out of her hands. I mean credit to her, she is a great player and just getting it out of her hands gives her less opportunity to create, so just defending and denying her this game really helped."
On ball movement…
"It was moving great. I think our focus of what we wanted to work on this past week was execution and I think we are doing a great job of doing that, just seeing an open player and knowing a great shot versus a good shot. We have been doing great with that."
On how film helped prepare for this game…
"I don't know if there is anything different that I looked at. I think it is just you go into the game and you just accept what is going to happen and just trusting our offense. There were times when I was open so I took my opportunity to take that shot. I think just our offense of looking for that great shot and passing it around like we are going to find open players. I don't think it was anything different, it was just I had more opportunities tonight."
