Mizzou women’s basketball is still dancing in the WBIT after defeating Seton Hall in New Jersey 67-57 after a fantastic fourth quarter. But the job isn’t done, as the Tigers hit the road against BYU, the top-seed in the region.
This game is being played on Monday due to BYU’s religious policy to not playing on Sundays, when the rest of the WBIT games took place. The winner of this matchup will play Stanford, the two-seed in the region, in the Quarterfinals.
For this week’s Hoopin’ and Hollerin, I will
break down how Mizzou knocked off the Pirates on the road and what has to be done to upset the Cougars in Provo.
Fourth Quarter Fame
In the opening round, Seton Hall seemed to have Mizzou on the ropes. The Pirates led for the vast majority of the first half, opening up a seven-point lead a little over halfway through the third quarter. At first it was the Tigers’ offense, going on a 14-7 run to close the quarter and tie the game at 52. Shannon Dowell was a big part of that comeback, with five points in the stretch including a steal-and-score to tie the game heading into the final frame.
The fourth quarter was all about the defense, as Mizzou outscored Seton Hall 15-5 to pull off the comeback win on the road. The Tigers kept them away from the basket, forcing the Pirates into 14 attempts from long range; of which they only made one. Plus they were disciplined, committing only three fouls in the quarter. All of those fouls were on the floor, meaning Seton Hall shot no free throws in the final 10 minutes.
This was quite the defensive performance for a team that struggled on that end of the floor all season. This was the first time the Tigers held their opponent below 60 points since non-conference playback in December. To be fair, part of that is just the offensively proficiency of SEC teams.
While the offense didn’t do anything fancy to win the game, Grace Slaughter came up big with seven points in the final frame including a three and 2-2 from the line.
This sort of late-game success is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg for what Mizzou has to do if they want to beat BYU.
Calculating the Cougars
While BYU is the higher seed in the tournament, history has favored the Tigers. Mizzou has won all six previous showdowns between the teams, the last being a 78-69 win in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. Sophie Cunningham led the way with 20 points in the first round win.
But this year’s Cougars team is the top-seed in the region for a reason, finishing the regular season 23-11 and just narrowly missing the NCAA Tournament. BYU was 9-9 in Big 12 play, picking up big wins against tournament teams like Texas Tech, Colorado and Arizona State (twice).
The Cougars reached the second round of the WBIT with a throttling win over Alabama A&M 72-47. BYU held a 7-point advantage at the end of the first quarter and never looked back, as the Cougars never trailed in the win. The biggest advantage for BYU was its size, outrebounding the Bulldogs 49-32 while holding a 34-16 advantage in paint points. Plus the team held clear advantage on 3-pointers, making 8-16 of long balls compared to 4-21 for their opponents.
It was offense-by-committee, with four different Cougars ending the game in double-digits. Sydney Benally led the way scoring the basketball with a team-high 18 points. She was highly efficient, shooting 7-of-11 from the field plus 4-of-5 on 3-pointers. This was quite the outburst from Benally, only averaging 7.7 points on 26% shooting from three this season. So while I wouldn’t expect her to go off with that sort of scoring output against the Tigers, this sort of 3-point outburst from any of BYU’s guards is something coach Kellie Harper should be mindful of heading into Monday.
Player to Watch: Shannon Dowell
For my last piece, I picked Reisma as my “Player to Watch”. In turn she scored 17 points and was a key part in Mizzou’s win over Seton Hall. This time, let’s see if this honor can bestow Dowell with that same luck.
Since Dowell missed most of January with an injury, she has been quite inconsistent. She’s had phenomenal performances, like scoring 33 points in the regular season finale against Oklahoma. But since that game she’s struggled offensively, combining for 12 points in her last two games against Seton Hall and Alabama.
While some of it has been efficiency, the bigger issue has been the limited volume. Against Oklahoma, the junior shot the ball 22 times from the field plus 10 free throws. In her last two games, Dowell has averaged 7.5 field goal attempts and three free throws. If she wants to spark the Tiger offense in Provo, they need to get the ball into her hands more.
Dowell and the rest of the Tigers face off against BYU at 8 p.m. on Monday in Provo, Utah. The game is available to watch through ESPN+ on the ESPN app.
