Mizzou women’s basketball dominated by Florida for eighth straight loss

On Thursday, Florida women’s basketball (14-11, 5-8 SEC) struggled against Missouri (11-15, 2-11 SEC) for 30 minutes of action.

However, the first 10 minutes defined the game, as the only thing the Gators struggled with in that quarter was missing. When they went up 33-8 on a three-pointer by Aliyah Matharu, ESPN play-by-play commentator Kyle Crooks bellowed the following:

“It’s Rain-seville tonight!”

UF’s first-quarter blitz provided them enough of a cushion the rest of the way, even as Mizzou clawed back late. When the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read Florida 86, Mizzou 70.

Robin Pingeton’s crew got off to a rough start. Like, a really, really rough start. It was already known that Florida was a very aggressive team on both ends of the floor. Heading into Thursday, they ranked seventh amongst Power 6 teams in pace and ranked in the top-35 nationally in points per game. While UF’s defense has gotten diced up a lot this season, they’ve always been willing to send traps and put heavy pressure on ball-handlers.

That aggressiveness turned into results, as Florida led hung 36 points on Mizzou in the first quarter. That included makes on its first 12 shots from the field, as the Gators were pulverizing the Tigers from the inside as well as the outside.

On the other end, Mizzou couldn’t generate much offensively, especially because it kept giving away possessions. The turnover bug traveled with them to Gainesville, as the Tigers registered eight giveaways in the opening frame. Florida, meanwhile, only committed one turnover.

“Really aggressive,” Pingeton said of Florida’s defensive performance in the first 10 minutes. “Really made it hard to get the ball entered, offense got pushed out quite a bit to half court.”

Overall, the Gators kept shooting and scoring, while the Tigers couldn’t stop the raining and pouring. UF attempted 16 more field goals than MU, and the home team led 36-13 after one.

“We let ‘em have their way with us,” Pingeton said.

The second quarter wasn’t too much different than the first. Florida crashed back down to Earth — it missed nine of its next 12 shots after starting 12/12 — but the Gators crashed on a mountain, while the Tigers were still at sea level. Defensively, they continued to swarm Mizzou, and they kept generating turnovers. A lot of those turnovers came off of the Gators jumping passing lanes and trapping hard up top.

“It’s kind of complicated to start the offense when you have 15 seconds on the shot clock,” Mama Dembele said. “I just think we weren’t ready for it.”

Not only that, UF was capitalizing; over the first two quarters, Florida scored 24 points off of turnovers. This was an issue Adeen discussed a little while ago, and it popped up harshly on Thursday.

There were some positives for Mizzou in the first half. Grace Slaughter and Hayley Frank got to work scoring the ball, combining for 16 points on 7/15 shooting. Florida also only outscored Mizzou 19-17 in the second quarter, but the lead they’d built in the first quarter kept the game out of reach. The Gators led 55-30 at halftime.

The second half saw Mizzou get off to a better start. Mama Dembele, who’d been struggling to create offensively, scored six early points, as she continued attacking the basket with ferocity and was finally getting rewarded. Dembele’s efforts combined with a three-pointer from Ashton Judd helped Mizzou to a 9-2 run early in the third.

That run extended to 17-4, as Abbey Schreacke knocked down a pair of triples, and Dembele made another layup to bring Mizzou within 14 late in the third. Florida started missing shots and also got sloppy with the basketball, committing six turnovers in the frame.

“We believed that everything we were doing wrong was actually in our hands,” Dembele said. “It wasn’t anything we didn’t have control over, so it was like, take care of those little details. And when we did that, we were right there.”

However, Florida ended the quarter on a high note, as Leilani Correa and Aliyah Matharu scored eight straight points to put the Gators back up by 22. After a layup by Slaughter, the third quarter ended with Florida up 69-49.

Mizzou continued clawing back in the fourth, as it ended up being the Tigers’ best quarter yet in terms of scoring margin. The Gators kept turning the ball over, and Schreacke remained hot from deep. However, the deficit proved to be too large in the end, and Mizzou walked out of Gainesville having gained another loss.

Four Tigers registered double-figures in the points department, with Schreacke leading the way with 16. Dembele followed with 15, Slaughter had 14 and Frank registered 12 of her own. They shot an efficient 16/19 from the free throw line and had a +4 turnover margin in the second half.

The story of this kind of game had been written before, as the Tigers let one quarter outweigh the other three despite MU battling valiantly throughout. In the final three quarters, Mizzou outscored Florida 57-50.

“When we do decide to put 40 minutes together, I think we’re gonna be really good,” Pingeton said.

The Tigers return home for their next game on Monday, when they host Ole Miss (18-7, 8-4 SEC) at 6 p.m. CST.