Mizzou Tigers women’s basketball out of SEC Tournament with overtime loss to Arkansas
The Missouri Tigers will be sweating things out on Selection Sunday.
The ninth-seeded Mizzou women’s basketball team was defeated by eighth-seeded Arkansas 61-52 in overtime in its first game of the SEC Tournament on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena, making their path to the NCAA Tournament a lot harder.
The Tigers (18-12, 7-10 SEC) entered the matchup on the March Madness bubble. The latest ESPN projections had them as one of the last four teams in the field, which means they’d have to compete in a play-in game. Now there’s a real chance they might not even make the cut.
“We’re obviously very disappointed,” Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said. “Big growth from a year ago for sure — I’m proud of them for that — but we’re still not where we want to be. We’re not real pleased with obviously the outcome and having to be on the bubble. I don’t think we’re a bubble team. I think we’re a team that has the ability and talent to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
Missouri only scored four points in overtime, where Arkansas went on a 13-2 run. The Tigers struggled on offense throughout the afternoon, making 20 of 67 (29.9%) shots from the field and 5 of 19 (26.3%) three-point attempts. They also committed 14 turnovers.
Star guard Aijha Blackwell was back for the Tigers after missing three of the last four games for not meeting team “standards and expectations.” She didn’t take her usual place in the starting lineup and wasn’t subbed in by Pingeton until under three minutes were left in the second quarter.
Despite having her available, Pingeton barely played Blackwell — including in the final seconds of regulation and overtime. Blackwell only saw 11 minutes on the court and finished with five points and eight rebounds.
“We won two big games where she wasn’t in the rotation, and being out for seven days is a while,” Pingeton said. “We have tweaked some things offensively and I’m sure conditioning is a little bit of a factor. You kind of feel like your hands are tied a little bit when somebody is away from the team for seven days, two games, handful of practices.
“Just had to find a way to try and battle through it without her. Obviously, she’s a huge part of what we’ve been able to get done this season. She’s an elite-level player, for sure, but we had to go with who has been in the rotation and we felt like that was going to give us our best shot. I don’t know if I think it’s really fair to the other players to all of a sudden change something after not being with a team for seven days. That’s a challenging call as a coach.”
Haley Troup led Missouri with a career-high 21 points, along with six rebounds and three assists. LaDazhia Williams had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
After a back-and-forth start, Missouri opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run to jump out to a 19-10 lead on a three-pointer from Hayley Frank. The Tigers led 23-17 at halftime.
The Razorbacks got back into it in the third quarter, however, outscoring the Tigers by six points in the period. The game was tied at 32-32 entering the final frame.
Arkansas took a 46-41 lead with a little under three minutes left in the contest, forcing Pingeton to call a timeout. Troup hit her third three-pointer of the day to trim into the deficit shortly after. Then Williams hit two free throws to tie the game with 38.4 seconds left.
“I knew exactly what I needed to do to help the team win, and today that was score the ball,” Troup said. “I felt like I just needed to be more aggressive. And they were going in, so that felt good.”
Despite the season being on the line, Pingeton didn’t play Blackwell in the final seconds of regulation. Amber Ramirez hit a jumper to give Arkansas a 48-46 lead, but Troup once again came up clutch with a layup to tie the game. Ramirez’s shot rimmed out at the end of regulation.
With less than two minutes left in the extra period, Missouri found itself in a six-point deficit and in desperate need of a bucket after allowing Arkansas to go on a 8-0 run. The Tigers weren’t able to get a shot to fall, with several rimming out.
“I think you have to focus on giving Arkansas some credit,” Pingeton said. “They found a way to punch through there in that overtime and really were the aggressors that last five minutes.”
Now Mizzou will anxiously wait to see if it will make the NCAA Tournament field, no longer in charge of its own fate.
“It is tough, but it’s also just March Madness,” Troup said. “We put ourselves in position to be on the bubble and if we get in, we get in. But either way we’re gonna go in confident, we’re gonna work our tail off in practice the next few weeks and we’re gonna prepare, whether or not we’re going.
“I love this team, I think we could make a run in March Madness if we really wanted to. So I’m excited to see where we fall.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 2:23 PM.
