University of Missouri
18-5, 5-5SEC
Georgia
17-6, 5-5SEC
#21 @MizzouWBB Falls to Georgia, 65-50
2/4/2016 10:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Sophie Cunningham finishes with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists
COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 21 Mizzou Women's Basketball (18-5, 5-5) 65-50 to Georgia (17-6, 5-5) on Thursday night at Mizzou Arena. Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) led the Tigers with a game-high 17 points and four assists to go along with eight rebounds.
Jordan Frericks (Quincy, Ill.) added 12 points and five boards while Cierra Porter (Columbia, Mo.) finished with five points and nine rebounds.
The first quarter consisted of a back-and-forth contest with the Lady Bulldogs as the Tigers trailed 12-11 at the end of the period. Cunningham kick-started the Mizzou offense with six points during the first seven minutes of the game.
The battle continued into the second quarter as both teams struggled to drive to the basket. Mizzou lead points in the paint 10-8 and kept turnovers to fewer than 10 in the first half. The Tigers would contain the turnovers to 15 on the night, the sixth lowest turnover total this season.
Maddie Stock (Town & Country, Mo.) sparked an 8-3 run for the Tigers with a 3-pointer late in the third quarter. A triple by Cunningham at the buzzer tied the game 37-37 heading into the fourth period.
Three consecutive baskets by Frericks put the Tigers ahead early in the final period. The lead quickly vanished as the Bulldogs went on a 20-7 run to close out the game, sinking four 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes.
Mizzou shot 35 percent (18-for-51) from the field, 30 percent (6-for-20) from beyond the arc and 67 percent (8-for-12) from the free throw line. Georgia finished at 44 percent (26-for-59) from the floor, 50 percent (7-for-14) from 3-point range and a percent 6-for-6 from the foul line. The Tigers were outscored 24-4 in points off of turnovers and were outrebounded 36-31.
Marjorie Butler led the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points, four rebounds and four assists. Caliya Robinson recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Mizzou will return to action Sunday with a 2 p.m. CT tipoff at No. 11 Mississippi State. The game will be available 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
- Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham scored 17 points on the night on 7-of-14 shooting from the field. Cunningham has now scored in double digits in 14 of 23 games this season.
- Cunningham grabbed eight rebounds in the game, the sixth time this season she has had eight or more boards in a game.
- Freshman forward Cierra Porter had nine rebounds in the game, tying her third-highest mark this season.
- Junior forward Jordan Frericks scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds in the game, the 15th time this season Frericks has had at least 10 points and five rebounds in a contest.
- Senior forward Michelle Hudyn had one block in the game, her first block since turning away a shot against South Carolina on Jan. 10. Hudyn also drained her fifth 3-pointer of the season in nine attempts (56 percent).
- Mizzou is now 11-2 at Mizzou Arena this season.
- The Tigers are 3-5 when trailing at halftime.
- Mizzou is 0-4 when being outrebounded.
- The Tigers are 15-5 when forcing 10 or more turnovers.
- As a team, the Tigers shot 66.7 percent from the free throw line in the game (8-of-12), the 17th time this season Mizzou has made at least two-thirds of its free throws.
- Thursday's attendance was 4,086, marking the fourth crowd of 4,000-plus this season and the ninth game in a row with at least 3,300 fans.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Robin Pingeton
Opening statement…
"Obviously we are really disappointed with the outcome of this game. We definitely want to give credit to Georgia. They are a senior-dominant team and a very, very good defensive team, which we talked about before the game. It was going to be really hard on the offensive end and we have really got to have great movement and got to work real hard to get each other good looks. Defensively for the most part we did a decent job. We lost their shooters on some screen action a couple times. I didn't like our effort on the boards. We have done such a great job all year long from a rebounding standpoint and I always correlate that with effort and that is something that we have not had to talk to our team a lot about this year. They've been so great with that. Our turnovers tonight, although we brought the number down to a reasonable number at fifteen, they were not good turnovers. They were turnovers that led to uncontested layups so that definitely hurt us as well. It is always tough to lose on our home court but we lost to a very good team and we certainly don't have much time to dwell on this because we are going to have a tough, tough game on the road on Sunday."
On the shot clock…
"Georgia is a really good defensive team; I think one of the better defensive teams in our league to be honest with you. They don't apply as much full court pressure but their half-court pressure is really solid. They read each other well. We they need to get through screens they get through screens and when they need to switch they switch. I just thought they really guarded us hard and it was pretty physical down there in the post. We missed them a couple times and we missed some layups and some easy shots that you have to make because there are going to be a lot of them that are going to be hard to get. I think that is a combination of a couple things. There were a couple times that we passed up some shots and maybe moved the ball more than what we needed to instead of having a good luck, with your feet set and being willing to take those shots. I think it's a combination of all those things. IT was just a tough offensive night for us."
On Tiaria Griffin…
"The scouting report certainly said she was a good 3-point shooter and we talked about chasing off player screens and that was just a couple possessions that we weren't assignment correct. That is so important for us in this league."
On team energy…
We don't have the athletes that everybody does but the one thing that we can always hang our hat on is that for the most part we are assignment correct and knowing that you are not going to play a perfect game. We didn't have the sense of urgency that we needed to. We didn't come out with the energy, which makes absolutely no sense for this team. I know playing on our home court is so important and again another great turnout from a fan standpoint. We didn't give them a lot to get excited about and I thought we looked fatigued. For the first four minutes of the game we looked tired. We've got to evaluate that and figure out what is going on from that standpoint. In this league every night is a dogfight and we got beat by a very good team tonight."
On Kayla McDowell's status…
She's been out for a little bit. She's had some meniscus issues. She was good to go tonight and she practiced one time this week. We probably could have thrown her out there and probably should have thrown her out there at least for a few minutes and give Cierra Porter a little bit of a rest. I didn't do it because she hadn't been in practice. She's a veteran player but we just felt that Cierra Porter's rebounding was so key for us and you never know when she was going to knock down some of those shots. I don't have a reason for it other than she hadn't been practicing a lot and it's an awfully tough game to throw her out in the middle of being down five or six or seven. We have to work her back in there because we need that rotation and we need to go deeper to our bench. It's a little residual form her ACL. It just flared up a little and there's been some swelling the past couple weeks so she got a PRP injection and typically after those they like them to take a few more days off and let it settle down a little bit. She's been great with her rehab, it just flared up on her a little bit."
On freshmen production…
"I thought Sophie came out of her offensive struggles a little bit which was great to see because we need her being a threat for us offensively. She had been struggling the last couple games. She was getting better against Ole Miss with a double-double so she had a good game but it seems like she's getting more back in rhythm and getting that bounce back. We didn't really have anyone that shot the ball outstanding other than Sophie and Jordan and Jordan wasn't on the court long enough after getting in foul trouble again. That's such an important position for us but other than that we didn't really shoot the ball that well today."
On Jordan Frericks…
"It's important for Jordan to be on the court. I think her presence, her rebounding, her defense, and her ability to score. I didn't think she came out with the aggressiveness in the first half that she did in the second half. I didn't really like where our team was at to be honest with you. We have been fortunate and never questioned their effort, their energy or their passion. Tonight we just came off flat and couldn't seem to get it going. Throughout the course of a long season, you are probably going to have a game like that sooner or later and that was our game tonight. It's just unfortunate that it was on our home court."
On early game energy…
"We got up four and then hit a layup underneath. I think it was Morgan Stock that had an open layup underneath that would have pulled it to six that gives our crowd a chance to get even more into it. This isn't on one player by any stretch of the imagination. We had layups to start the game that we missed. I think after missing that layup we might have gotten a little deflated. They came down and hit a big shot and they were right back in it. They played with great poise down the stretch, which since they are senior-dominant, you'd expect them to play that way. We didn't whether that comeback very well."
On Mississippi State…
"I think our girls always have great locker room talk and they were on point when I entered the locker room. It's the importance of one possession at a time and the importance on not getting deflated. It's the importance of coming out of the gates swinging and being the aggressors and not letting physical play deflate us. We have to have more resiliency and we have to do a better job with our screening action and our half court motion. There is no excuse to get outrebounded; that is something we hang out hats on night in and night out. That is an effort thing. We can't give up on those hustle plays. They are a bright group and are committed and passionate. Give Georgia credit because they came in and did what they needed to do and we had a bad night. It's as simple as that."
Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham
On hitting a 3-pointer to tie the game as the third quarter expired…
"I think that gave us a little bit of momentum. We are just trying to put a whole game together, a full 40 minutes, first half and second half. We are going to be getting it done because we need to focus in. This is the time that we need to lock arms and get a little tighter and get going."
On Georgia responding down the stretch…
"I think it is just a lack of discipline on our part. We have to know who the shooters are. We need to know personnel, but if they make a basket, we can't get deflated. We have to go right back at them and throw the next punch, so that is something that we really need to work on."
Freshman forward Cierra Porter
On Georgia being physical in the paint…
"They are a physical team, but Coach [Pingeton] has us working on swim moves and different things to get open, and we just didn't do our job tonight. Like [Coach Pingeton] said we give them full credit, but there are also things we need to work on."
On using most of the shot clock…
"I think one of our keys was working hard to getting each other open and we did that at times, but we didn't do it the entire game. That is when you saw us getting deep into the shot clock, so that is another area we need to improve on."
On hitting 3-pointers late in the second quarter…
"I think every good thing needs to be a spark for our team. I think we need to get excited over every little thing and that will pick our energy up, and we just didn't have tremendous energy tonight."
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