Turnovers and offensive rebounds sink Mizzou women
The Mizzou Tigers scored 82 points. The shot more than 40 percent from the field and from 3. They went 21-of-21 at the free-throw line.
And yet they lost 100-82 to the Troy Trojans at Mizzou Arena on Thursday.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the outcome of the game,” Mizzou coach Kellie Harper said. “… We knew the type of team we were playing. Tough team, gritty team. They played with a lot of confidence. … We were just a step behind defensively, it felt like, the entire game.”
So what made the difference?
The Tigers had 18 turnovers to Troy’s nine, leading to a 25-6 Trojan lead in points off turnovers. And Troy had a 19-6 lead in offensive rebounds and a 12-2 lead in second-chance points.
All of those extra possessions led to Troy taking 21 more shots from the field and four more free throws than Mizzou did.
“We did not dictate the pace,” Harper said. “I thought we were playing right to their pace.”
Initial offense
Both teams were scorching the net to start.
The teams went back and forth, tying at 3, 6, 9, 16, 18, 20, 23 and 28, while trading the lead twice on the way to a 31-30 Troy lead after the first quarter.
Mizzou and Troy combined to shoot 18-of-37 from the field with 11 made 3-pointers and 14 made free throws in just the first 10 minutes.
The second quarter continued on the same line with the teams combining to shoot 19-of-37 overall and 11-of-12 from the free-throw line to build to a 61-54 Troy lead at the break.
“There’s just got to be a better urgency to get up and understand what we were trying to take away,” Harper said. “There’s not, there wasn’t a scheme. Sometimes you’ve got to get up and guard. … The adjustments we made weren’t helping. And at some point, our players have to take some ownership and we can’t, as a staff, always save them.”
Lack of urgency
But out of the break, it was all Troy.
The Tigers struggled to get on the board in the first 6:32, with only a Grace Slaughter 3 and a Reka Toman jumper while Troy kept torching the nets and used runs of 5, 4 and 13 points to build an 84-59 lead with 3:43 left in the third.
“We gave up a lot of points to start the third quarter,” Harper said. “And I thought we would have a little more urgency coming out of half and that was not good to see. The way we were playing, it just handicaps you as a coach. There were no adjustments I could make that would help them. And that’s tough as a coach because you want to help them. But at some point they just have to go out and do what you ask them to do.”
The Tigers used a 7-0 run to cut the lead, but never truly got back in the game.
Troy led 88-69 going to the fourth and Mizzou never cut the lead closer than 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“We’re going to pick it apart, (but) we scored 82 points, you guys,” Harper said. “If we score 82 points, we gotta be in the game to win.”
Stats
- Shannon Dowell led the Tigers with 25 points and five assists, while also bringing down five rebounds.
- Slaughter had 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting overall.
- Chloe Sotell added 11 points with three made 3s, while also bringing down a team-high seven rebounds, dishing out three assists and poking away three steals.
- Mizzou shot 25-of-58 (43.1 percent) overall, 11-of-27 (40.7 percent) from 3 and 21-of-21 (100 percent) from the line.
- Troy shot 33-of-79 (41.8 percent) from the field, 13-of-27 (48.1 percent) from 3 and 21-of-25 (84 percent) from the stripe.
Post game press conference
Kellie Harper, Grace Slaughter & Jordana Reisma
Up next
Mizzou (4-2) will head to Kissimmee, Florida, for the WBCA Showcase where the Tigers will face Washington State at 2 p.m. Sunday.