Mizzou Women's Basketball Flys Past Southern Indiana
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When it rains, it pours. While rain fell outside of Mizzou Arena on Monday night, big time shots were constantly falling inside for the Missouri Tigers women's basketball team in a 96-62 win over Southern Indiana. The win pushed Missouri to a record of 4-1 on the season.
The diverse scoring attack for Missouri included four different players — Hayley Frank, Abbey Scheracke, Ashton Judd, Mama Dembele — scoring double-digit points in the Tigers' second 90-point performance of the 2023 season.
"I think there's a lot of a lot of firepower on our team," head coach Robin Pingeton said. "I think the more balanced we can be, it's going to serve us that much better."
Southern Indiana was able to remain in striking distance of Missouri in the first nine minutes, only trailing 15-16 when 1:48 remained in the first quarter. The game quickly slipped away from the Screaming Eagles, however, when Missouri sustained a 15-1 run through the first two minutes of the second quarter.
The dominating run was kickstarted by consecutive three-point makes from freshman Abbey Schreacke and Frank. Schreacke was Missouri's most successful shooter behind the arc, making three out of her four three-point attempts. The Tigers as a whole saw succes on three-point shots, making 16 off of 32 attempts. Both Judd and Frank contributed five successful three-point shots.
Judd, the Tigers' leading scorer for the 2023 season, recorded 26 points, making it her third game with over 20 points so far this season. The sophomore has taken on an elevated scoring role from her impressive freshman season where she averaged just 7.4 points per game.
Missouri was also able to clean up some of the turnover issues they have faced in other games early this season. The Tigers only recorded 15 turnovers, tied for their lowest total through five games. Missouri was able to record a positive assist-turnover ratio by creating 23 assists, their highest total of the season.
Dembele, unsurprisingly, led Missouri with nine assists to help control the flow of the Tigers' offense.
"Mama is such a good facilitator," Judd said. "She's one of the most unselfish players that we have and honestly looks for everybody else's shot before hers."
Missouri will continue the season this weekend when it travels to Florida to compete in the Daytona Beach Classic tournament, starting Friday night with a matchup against Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m.
