Mizzou Women's Basketball Overcomes an Ugly Start Against SIUE

Missouri's (9-2) matchup with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville was a tale of two halves. The Tigers trailed by as much as 15 points, but ultimately stormed back in the second half to overcome the deficit for the 65-56 win at Mizzou Arena.

Late in the third quarter, Grace Slaughter barreled down the lane on a fast break, colliding with the Cougars' Macy Silvey. Despite the contact, Slaughter made the basket and converted the and-one free throw attempt to give the Tigers their first lead since the 6:19 mark of the first quarter.

Before the game, Slaugher was honored for scoring her 1,000th career point. Alongside Shannon Dowell, she has been part of one of the best scoring duos in program history. For the first time ever, Missouri boasted two scorers who had reached double-digit point totals across each of the first 10 games. SIUE, Missouri's 11th opponent of the year, seemed poised to disrupt the historic start.

The Tigers and Cougars went back-and-forth across the early stages of the game, no team scoring more than one consecutive basket in a row before SIUE took the 10-8 lead halfway through the opening period. The Tigers limped to the end of the first quarter buzzer, trailing 24-16. Jordana Reisma was the lone bright spot of the team, scoring 9 of their 16 points.

Things only looked to be getting worse in the second quarter, peaking when the Tigers fell behind 33-18 with four more minutes until halftime. Chloe Sotell managed to stop the bleeding before the break, snapping the seven point Cougars run in a quarter where there were only 17 total points scored.

Slaughter, Missouri's top nightly scorer, entered the contest averaging 20 points per contest, which was good for 3rd in the SEC entering Saturday. She had an uncharacteristic afternoon, starting the game 0-6 from the field. She finally recorded her first points with the final bucket of the first half, where she cut the defecit to single digits, still trailing 33-24.

Missouri, the nation's 5th best 3-point shooting team, registered just one make from long range on seven total attempts.

Out of the break, Missouri's defense tightened up, allowing the offense to make up ground. The Tigers held their opponents under 10 points as a team for the second consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, Slaughter found her rhythm. She totaled seven points in the quarter while her team outscored the visitors 18-9 in the first frame out of the break.

Missouri's defensive savant, Jayla Smith, marked the opening of the foruth quarter, stealing the inbound pass from the Cougars and scoring in transition. That momentum carried on throughout the final frame. The Tigers finally found their stroke from long range, sinking all three shots in the quarter, with Dowell, Sotell and Abbey Schreacke each getting in on the action. Meanwhile, Reisma controlled the inside, adding six more points to her total. She finished the game with a team-high 17.