COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Missouri Tigers women’s basketball team has done the unthinkable, upsetting the No. 1-ranked team in the country in overtime.
With only eight players available and star guard Aijha Blackwell out due to health and safety protocols, Robin Pingeton’s squad surely didn’t stand a fair chance against the unanimous No. 1 team in the country on Thursday night, right?
Sure, Mizzou was off to its best start in recent years, but South Carolina entered Thursday night’s game with a 12-0 record, complete with wins over UConn, Stanford, NC State, Maryland, Oregon and UConn — who were each ranked in the top 10 at the time. That’s a tough ask on its own, yet alone without your leading scorer and rebounder.
Yet, somehow, someway, Missouri (12-2) did what no other team had been able to do: beat the Gamecocks. The Tigers stunned South Carolina, 70-69, to begin SEC play with a bang. This is the program’s first ever win over a No. 1 team.
Hayley Frank and Lauren Hansen each scored 21 points for Mizzou, which shot 46.1% as a team from deep on the night.
The MU program tested its players for COVID-19 on Tuesday, following a Christmas break, according to a team spokesperson who declined to provide further information. Blackwell testing positive would have seemed to have changed everything for the Tigers.
Prior to Thursday night, Blackwell led Missouri in scoring (16.6 points per game) and rebounding (12.7) and had established herself as one of the best players in the conference.
Other notable absences included guard Izzy Higginbottom (7.0 ppg) and forward Micah Linthacum. Forward Skylah Travis, center Jayla Kelly and forward Da’Necia Trusty were also missing.
Mizzou kept it close in the first quarter and then took its first lead of the game in the second, by way of a Lauren Hansen 3-pointer. And the Tigers led the Gamecocks 32-26 at halftime.
Frank led Missouri with 14 points in the first half, followed by 11 points from LaDazhia Williams and seven from Hansen. Pingeton’s team held South Carolina to 33.3% shooting from the field and forced five turnovers in the half.
But South Carolina took back the lead on a 3-pointer from guard Zia Cooke with a little over five-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter.
And it was a closely contested affair the rest of the way.
With a little under three minutes left in the game, Frank grabbed a miss by Williams and scored a put-back bucket that gave the Tigers a 62-56 lead.
But South Carolina scored two consecutive buckets, one on an offensive rebound from Destiny Henderson and the other by fast-break layup from Cooke. Just like that, with under two minutes to go, the game was tied 62-62.
And when it came down to it, Missouri was set to have the final possession of the game. But the Gamecocks tripped up the inbounds play with 20 seconds left. The official review put the ball in South Carolina’s hands with a chance to win it. The Tigers’ defense proved stingy though, forcing the game into overtime.
The extra period didn’t start well for Mizzou. The Tigers went nearly two minutes without a score, allowing South Carolina to take a 69-66 lead behind a crucial 3 from Aliyah Boston.
The Gamecocks didn’t put another point on the board from there, though, missing their final four shots of the game thanks to a solid defensive effort from the Tigers. Mizzou missed a lot of easy shots during that span, until Hansen proved the hero late.
Aided by a screen from Frank, Hansen, a junior guard, drove hard into the paint from the top of the arc, weaved her way past two defenders and scooped the layup to take the lead with .01 seconds left.
The Mizzou Arena crowd erupted into a chaos of cheers as soon as the shot fell through. Meanwhile, the Tigers, unaware there was still time on the clock and overcome with the joy of the moment, jumped into a collective dog pile. And soon enough, the upset was complete.
