A poor offensive first half put Mizzou behind the eight-ball, and a tough defensive second half eliminated any chance of a comeback as Ole Miss knocked off the Tigers 82-61. Mizzou was outscored in all four
quarters of the loss.
The best place to start would be the offense, as the Tigers’ 61 points was the second-lowest total this season. Mizzou shot only 33.9% from the field and 20% from three. The lone bright spot was the free throw line, where the Tigers finished 15-17 at 88.2%. Ole Miss brings this sort of offensive slog out of their opponents, holding teams to 56.4 points per game entering this matchup.
“They pride themselves in their defense,” head coach Kellie Harper said. “Their physicality and their size and their speed and just their approach to defense, it makes them hard to score on.”
The Rebels started slow offensively with 29 points in the first half. The team picked up the pace with 53 in the second half, led by lead scorer Cotie McMahon. The Ohio State transfer led the team with a career high-tying 33 points on 13-23 shooting and 6-11 on free throws. McMahon scored 24 points in the final 20 minutes, allowing Ole Miss to separate late.
Grace Slaughter was the top scorer for Mizzou, ending with 21 points along with seven rebounds. She came alive in the second half, finishing with 15 points on 4-10 from the field and 6-8 from the line in the final two quarters.
“We had to kind of take it in gear right there and find some opportunities,” Slaughter said. “My teammates did a good job of hitting me and I was just able to finish.”
Shannon Dowell was the other Tiger in double-digits with 15 points. She had to earn every bucket, finishing 5-16 on field goals and a perfect 5-5 on free throws. Saniah Tyler was the third leading scorer with nine points on 2-6 from the field and 5-5 from the line.
It was another shorthanded night for Mizzou, as Ma’Riya Vincent sat out with an undisclosed lower body injury. This brings the Tigers down to just seven healthy players on the roster. As a result six players finished with 20-plus minutes, and three finished with 30-plus.
Here’s how the whole game played out:
Both offenses failed to find buckets out of the gate, as Ole Miss led at the end of the first 13-12. The Rebels shot a mere 5-18 while the Tigers shot slightly better at 5-14. Saniah Tyler provided a key spark off the bench early with four points thanks to a pair of made free throws.
The Tigers put pressure on Ole Miss early in the quarter, tying the game at 21 with 4:27 remaining thanks to a knockdown three from Jayla Smith. But the Rebels responded with an 8-2 run to close the half and regain the lead. Shooting continued to be a major issue for Mizzou, finishing the frame 4-18 from the field and a mere 1-9 from three. This was the lowest point total for the Tigers during ANY half this season. The closest came after they finished a 24-point second half in the loss against Kentucky. In fact, the combined 52 points between the two teams was the lowest-scoring half in a Mizzou game all season.
The Tigers cut the lead as close as three, but could never tie the game before Ole Miss went on a run of their own. The Rebels stretched the lead to 10 points at the end of three quarters in the best offensive frame for both teams. Mizzou turned the ball over twice in the final 30 seconds, including a controversial offensive foul which Harper escalated into a technical foul for Coach Harper.
“[I] felt it coming,” Harper said. “You got to give everything you got to [your] players.”
The Rebels pulled away in the fourth, winning the frame 33-22 as they shot an absurd 11-12 from the field in the final frame. While the Tigers’ 22 points was a strong offensive frame led by Slaughter and Dowell, it was no match for the red-hot Ole Miss offense. However, this made the final score seem much more lopsided than the game actually felt as they finished on a 20-7 run.
Mizzou now falls to 1-6 in SEC play, with five of those losses coming against ranked foes. The Tigers face an easier matchup as next up is a Texas A&M team that is currently 1-4 in conference play. Mizzou hosts the Aggies at 5 p.m. on Sunday in Mizzou Arena (assuming everyone makes it through the snow). The game will be available to watch on the main SEC Network channel.
