Mizzou Women's Basketball Falls to No. 18 Ole Miss

Cold front hits Missouri early with tough shooting night against the Rebels

Sam Simon/MissouriOnSI

Missouri (13-9, 1-6 in Southeastern Conference) trailed No. 18 Ole Miss (17-4, 4-2) at the midway point of the second quarter when Jayla Smith pulled up in transition and buried a 3-pointer to tie the score at 21. Smith's triple marked the first made triple of the game, signaling a possible end to the ice-cold shooting night. However, Missouri fumbled the momentum back to Ole Miss, which closed the half on an 8-2 run.

The Rebel’s late second quarter surge proved to be crucial as the Tigers fell short of the upset. Ole Miss ran away with the victory with a light out fourth quarter to topple Missouri which fell short on its own home court, losing 82-61.

Ahead of the frigid cold front expected to be pushing through Missouri over the weekend, the Tigers and Rebels must’ve felt a draft hit the court a bit early. The Tigers posted an uncharacteristically poor performance from deep in the first half, while Ole Miss even managed to shoot below its already low averages. The Rbels entered Thursday's contest ranking amongst the 60 worst three-point shooting teams in the country. Meanwhile, Missouri's boasted the 8th best average in the nation.

Aside from Smith's lone contribution from beyond the arc, the Tigers registered 10 misses from long range in the opening half of play, enroute to their lowest scoring half of the season. Despite both sides shooting below 40% in the half and combining for an abysmal 1-20 clip on 3-pointers, Ole Miss led Missouri 29-23 at the break.

"We're built to take and make threes, and when we don't have that, you've got to get to the line more, trying to get the ball to the paint," Head Coach Kellie Harper said. "Then you're not finishing there either. There's not a whole lot of plan b when those shots aren't falling."

With time to assess the damage, Missouri returned to the floor, producing a stronger effort in the second half. However, the Tigers struggled to contain Cotie McMahon, who went off for 10 points in the third quarter, extending the Rebels lead to 49-39 ahead of the final frame.

Missouri made a strong push to close the gap in the fourth quarter, with Grace Slaughter leading the charge.  A 3-pointer from Slaughter cut the deficit to seven, but that is as close as it would get. Despite a 10-point quarter from Slaughter, McMahon added another 14 points to help the Rebels escape with the victory.

Only seven Tigers saw the floor on Thursday night. With Missouri already facing a size mismatch in comparison to most teams, Ole Miss took advantage of its height and depth. The Rebels scored 33 points on 11-12 shooting in the final period while outrebounding a the gassed Tigers 8-1 to close out the game.

McMahon's stellar night matched her career-high in the the scoring column, pouring in 33 points to lead all players. Slaughter led the Tigers with 21 points and 7 rebounds while Shannon Dowell was the only other Misosuri player to finish in double figures, adding 15 points.

Only seven Tigers saw the floor on Thursday night. With Missouri already facing a size mismatch in comparison to most teams, Ole Miss took advantage of its height and depth. The Rebels scored 33 points on 11-12 shooting in the final period while outrebounding a the gassed Tigers 8-1 to close out the game.

Missouri will look to make up ground in the conference standings with a matchup against Texas A&M, which has faced its own share of struggles in conference play. The Tigers host the Aggies at 5 p.m. on Sunday at Mizzou Arena.