Mizzou gets revenge with 112-59 win over SLU

Last season, the Missouri Tigers went to St. Louis and lost to the Saint Louis Billikens 93-85 early in the season.

Did the team carry that loss into the in-state rematch Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena?

“Maybe,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said with a smile.

Clearly the Tigers brought something extra to the matchup, because they walked away with a 112-59 win against the Billikens, the first time the Tigers beat a team by 50 since beating Arkansas-Pine Bluff 85-34 on Nov. 16, 2015.

“We definitely had a conversation about it, that one hurt pretty good (last year),” Pingeton said. “We gave up, I think it was 36 points in that fourth quarter (last year) … I think us having the conversations maybe brought, you know, it’s an in-state game. So records, stats go out the window. Everybody wants to be the in-state winner. So we definitely had that conversation.”

That Tigers were motivated from the jump, scoring the game’s first seven points on a jumper from Nyah Wilson, an Angelique Ngalakulondi free throw, a Laniah Randle jumper and another Wilson jumper with 6:48 left in the first.

Ngalakulondi (11) and Randle (15) were two of five Tigers to reach double-digit scoring.

“This team has a really high ceiling,” Pingeton said. “You know, I think we’re still figuring out how do we put them in a position offensively to play to their strengths and continue to share the ball. I think that’s just huge for our team.”

The Tigers then went on a 9-0 run with Ngalakulondi hitting a layup, Randle adding a jumper, Averi Kroenke connecting on the first of the Tigers’ 11 3-pointers and one free throw each from Grace Slaughter and Hannah Linthacum, putting Missouri in front 19-4 with 3:08 left in the first quarter.

Slaughter ended with 14 points, while Linthacum ended with a career-high seven rebounds.

Another Slaughter jumper and two Linthacum free throws sent Missouri into the first break leading 23-9.

The 23 first-quarter points was tied for the most Missouri had scored in a quarter this season, reaching the mark in the first quarter against Vermont and the third quarter against Western Illinois.

But the even-numbered quarters had given the Tigers issues through the first five games.

There were no such issues Wednesday.

The Tigers opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run with four points from Slaughter, a layup each from Ngalakulondi and Randle and the first of Abbey Schreacke’s five 3s, following up her performance of eight made 3s against Western Illinois for 13 in the past two games.

“I shot pretty well tonight, but I think, you know, it’s just because my teammates found me,” Schreacke said. “… I’m just thankful that I have good teammates that were sharing the ball tonight.”

Schreacke led the Tigers with 19 points, giving her 45 the past two games after her career-high 26 on Friday.

Missouri kept the pedal down, scoring 16 of the final 23 points of the first quarter, with two 3s from Ashtron Judd who ended with 10 points as the final Tiger to reach double figures.

De’Myla Brown hit two free throws and a jumper and Hilke Feldrappe connected on a layup to send the Tigers into halftime leading 55-27. The Tigers scored 32 second-quarter points, by far the most Missouri has scored in a quarter this year.

“The challenge has honestly been that second quarter, the first quarter has been solid. That second quarter is where we seem to stub our toe a little bit,” Pingeton said. “It was good to see that was actually our highest efficiency in that second quarter tonight. That was a little bit of a flip of the switch for us. We just really wanted to maintain the intensity and the aggressiveness.”

The pedal stayed down to open the second half as Missouri scored 15 of the first 17 points out of the break, leading to a 70-29 lead after a Randle jumper and two Schreake free throws with 4:08 left before the final break.

The Tigers put up another 8-0 run in the third to eventually take an 83-37 lead into the fourth after scoring another 28 points, marking the first time Missouri scored 20 points in three quarters this season.

Then they kept going in the fourth, adding another 29 points, including the first five of freshman Londyn Oliphant’s career on a free throw, a jumper and a layup with 2:16 left to play.

A Feldrappe layup with 3:32 left put Mizzou over 100 points for the first time since a Feb. 23, 2017 win against Ole Miss, when Sophie and Lindsey Cunningham combined to score 53. Sophie had 32 and Lindsey added 21. The Tigers won that matchup 100-65.

Then a Brown layup with 59 seconds left put the Tigers over 110 for the first time since a Dec. 8, 2013 win against Bradley which the Tigers won 126-55.

Missouri shot 41-of-77 (53.2 percent) overall, 11-of-24 (45.8 percent) from 3 and 19-of-24 (79.2 percent) at the free-throw line.

The Tigers outrebounded the Billikens 49-36, had 22 assists to 10 turnovers, turned over Saint Louis 24 times, dominated the paint 50-22 and scored 61 bench points.

Every dressed Missouri player scored.

“It was great to see some of those young ladies that don’t get to play as much and see them make the most of their minutes,” Pingeton said. “Proud of our team, we know it’s one game and we just hopefully can build on it and in less than 48 hours, be ready to go.”

The win was the third consecutive for Missouri (4-2) which will host Little Rock at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the first part of a morning-night doubleheader with the men’s team hosting Pacific at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

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