Missouri Women's Basketball Falls in Overtime to Virginia

Missouri Tigers women's basketball suffered a 87-81 loss on Thursday to the Virginia Cavaliers in the first ACC-SEC challenge.

Missouri women's basketball has quickly become familiar with close games that come down to the final minute. Coming off of a one-point win over Tennessee Tech and a three-point loss to Kent State last week, the Tigers returned to the court on Thursday in the ACC-SEC challenge to take on Virginia. After a back-and-forth four quarters, Missouri would fall short in overtime, losing 87-81.

Thursday's game was pushed into overtime after Missouri graduate guard Hayley Frank landed three clutch free-throws to tie the game at 75 with under five seconds remaining in regulation. Frank was able to strip the ball away in the final seconds  to prevent a game-winning shot attempt from Virginia.

Frank would foul out in overtime though on a charging call, leaving the Tigers without their season scoring-leader. Missouri was unable to land many of their shots in overtime while allowing many open looks for Virginia's offensive attack.

Frank's charge was only one of many physical moments, as Missouri was well prepared for the Cavilers' aggressive playing style heading into Thursday's game.

"To me it comes down to not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog," Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton said when previewing the game. "We've got to have a mind shift and our mentality has just got to be a little bit grittier."

The Tigers were able to play with that grit that Pingeton was looking for in the first half. Pingeton specifically emphasized the need to maintain a presence near the boards by coming away with rebounds. The Tigers had doubled the Cavaliers' rebound total in the first half, coming away with 30 compared to 15. This allowed Missouri to jump out to a 36-28 lead at the end of the first two quarters. 

But the tides would quickly turn in Virginia's favor to open out the third quarter as the Cavaliers would sustain a 14-4 run in the opening three minutes of the half. Missouri was unable to find the same success with rebounds and also had eight turnovers in the quarter. 

"In the first couple minutes of that third quarter, they just they came out and turned up the volume on the intensity and the aggressiveness and we didn't handle those first few minutes very well," Pingeton said.

With 7:21 remaining in the third quarter, Virginia took back the lead for the first time since the fifth minute of the first quarter. Missouri trailed by six with four minutes remaining in the third. The Tigers were pulled out of the deficit by scoring streaks from Frank as well as freshman Grace Slaughter. 

Frank led the Tigers in the game with 21 points and also came away with seven defensive rebounds. Slaughter scored double-digit points for the third time in her young career with 17.

Despite the efforts that brought the game to overtime, Missouri was outscored 6-12 in the extra period, falling to 5-3 on the 2023 season.

"Obviously a heartbreaker," Pingeton said. "I thought we started off really really strong. I felt like it was a game of runs and (we) didn't come out in the first three minutes of that first half the way we needed to," Pingeton said.

Missouri will have a quick turnaround after the loss as the Tigers host Southeast Missouri on Saturday at 2 p.m.