Mizzou Women's Basketball Trounced by No. 7 LSU in Baton Rouge

The Tigers suffered their worst loss in program history, marking a fourth straight defeat

MU Athletics

The Missouri Tigers' first round of conference play under Kellie Harper has been shaky, to say the least. A disastrous start to the Southeastern Conference slate left the Tigers at 0-4. Harper and Co. found their footing, and soon strung together a formidable resume that saw them trending in the NCAA Tournament Bubble conversation.

The Tigers' best stretch of league play capped off a run of three straight victories as part of a 4-1 run after tallying their first win of SEC competition. Since then, Missouri has spiraled. An anticlimactic season has left Missouri wounded to the point of no return as the last week of the regular season approaches. The Tigers have reached new program lows.

A heartbreaking home loss to Georgia bruised Missouri right as it was peaking. That was followed up by a 45-point massacre at the hands of Tennessee in Harper's Rocky Top homecoming. Missouri's last true hope of victory ended in defeat, as the Tigers fell to fellow SEC bottom-feeder Auburn. Missouri totaled a season-worst 34 turnovers despite a strong shooting night. That loss summed up Missouri's season quite well, as the Tigers are capable of performing at an elite level in almost any given category whenever they take the floor, but never seem to piece together a complete all-around performance.

The latest falter was 108-55 routing by No.7 LSU for Missouri, which didn't even manage any of its signature moral victories. On the road in the Bayou state, Missouri matched up with one of the best teams in the country at one of the most unforgiving home venues in all of sports. As a result, the floundering Tigers suffered the worst loss in program history by margin of defeat.

The 53-point clobbering began with Missouri falling behind 23-14 at the end of the opening quarter. The lone bright spot in the period was Grace Slaughter scoring 10 points on 3-7 shooting. A 3-pointer with 1:40 remaining in the quarter put Slaughter at the double-digit threshold. That would eb her final made field goal of the game. Slaughter has scored in double figures in every game this season and was just one of three Missouri players to cross that marker on Sunday. Chloe Sotell scored 11 and Shannon Dowell added 10.

Things went from bad to worse in the second frame, resulting in one of the most lopsided quarters in all of SEC play this season. LSU outscored Missouri 31-8, storming toward halftime with a gargantuan lead. The visiting Tigers managed a 2-19 clip in the quarter.

The final scoreboard may not even show the most egregios defeat of the day. Saying the rebound battle was one-sided would be an understatement. LSU totalled 72 boards with four players posting at least 10 individually. Sotell led Missouri with 7 rebounds as the team combined for just 25.

Missouri undoubtedly missed the presence of Jordana Reisma, the Tigers' starting center, who missed her fourth contest across the past five games. Resima is the lone big on the entire roster, and while her contributions wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game, it may have stopped the bleeding momentarily.

With two games remaining in conference play, the competition gets tougher, if one could even imagine. The Tigers will travel out east for a matchup against the No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Columbia, S.C.