Mizzou Tigers make quick exit from SEC women’s tourney in Pingeton’s final game as coach
The No. 15-seeded Missouri Tigers women’s basketball team blew a 14-point second-half lead Wednesday evening, making for an early exit from the 2025 Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.
No. 10 seed Mississippi State went on a blistering 31-0 run after halftime, erasing the Tigers’ double-digit lead — and season — with a 75-55 victory at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Mizzou’s season ends at 14-18 overall, 3-13 SEC.
Mississippi State (21-10, 7-9) advances to play No. 7 seed Ole Miss (19-9, 10-6) in the tourney’s second round at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Missouri had led Wednesday’s game 39-32 at halftime. Ashton Judd led the Tigers — and all scorers — at that juncture with 15 points and six rebounds. Jerkaila Jordan had 14 first-half points for the Bulldogs.
Mizzou was able to pad its lead further with a 7-0 run out of intermission. Grace Slaughter, a sophomore guard from Grain Valley who started every game this season, hit her second shot of the game to complete the spurt.
But then, inexplicably, the points dried up for Mizzou. The Tigers missed 16 straight shots, going scoreless for an unthinkable stretch — that mammoth 31-0 Bulldogs run.
Jordan led MSU with 21 points and Destiney McPhaul added 19.
Judd ended with 15 points, just one more than she had at halftime, while Nyah Wilson added 11 and Slaughter 8 for Missouri.
Earlier Wednesday, No. 9 seed Tennessee (22-8) walloped No. 16 seed Texas A&M (10-19) in another first-round game, beating the Aggies 77-37. All SEC tourney games are airing on the SEC Network.
Wednesday’s MU-MSU contest featured a fun subplot for Kansas City — Mizzou’s Slaughter squaring off against North Kansas City High School graduate and former Kansas Jayhawks (and Oklahoma State Cowboys) guard/forward Chandler Prater of Mississippi State.
Prater, who helped lead KU to a WNIT title in 2023, appeared in 30 games for the Bulldogs this season, starting 10. She averaged 6.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per contest.
She scored 6 points with a tied-for-team-high 8 rebounds Wednesday.
Slaughter, a former Missouri Gatorade Player of the Year and DiRenna Award winner in KC, improved in nearly every metric during her second season with the Tigers. She averaged better than 15 points per game, upping that to 16.2 in SEC play.
She’d shot 49.1% from the field and 46.6% from 3-point range this season entering Wednesday’s game. And she also became the second consecutive Mizzou player to be recognized as the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year (last year, former MU guard Mama Dembele earned the award).
A final major note about Wednesday’s outcome in South Carolina: Next season’s Tigers squad will have a decidedly different feel.
Longtime MU coach Robin Pingeton had previously announced her intent to retire at the end of the season, her 15th as head coach in Columbia.
Pingeton guided Missouri to 10 postseason tournament appearances, including four trips to the NCAA Tournament. Before being hired by Missouri in 2010, she was head coach at St. Ambrose and Illinois State.
She finishes 250-216 at Mizzou and stands 584-373 overall in her career as a head coach.
Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch said recently that the search for Pingeton’s successor would begin soon.
“I love this 2024-25 Mizzou team and could not be prouder of the way these young ladies have competed and represented this university,” Pingeton said in a statement issued Feb. 27, when she made the announcement she’d be leaving.
“I’ll always be grateful for my time at Mizzou and will close this chapter just as I opened it, with profound gratitude for the opportunity to lead this program. I know Laird will do amazing things for this athletics department moving forward.”
Kevin Utz of the Columbia Missourian contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 6:58 PM.