Mizzou’s Lauren Hansen drives in for what proved to be the game-winning basket in the Tigers’ 70-69 overtime win over No. 1 ranked South Carolina, Thursday night at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. (Photo: Nathan Assata)
| Score by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S. Carolina (12-1, 0-1) | 12 | 14 | 19 | 19 | 5 | 69 |
| Missouri (12-2, 1-0) | 11 | 21 | 13 | 19 | 6 | 70 |
by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor
COLUMBIA, MO — Playing with just eight available players, the University of Missouri women’s basketball team pulled off the biggest upset of the season so far, Thursday night at Mizzou Arena, when it stunned No. 1 ranked South Carolina, 70-69 in overtime, thanks to a soaring layup by junior Lauren Hansen with just one-tenth of a second left on the clock.
The victory was the first ever in program history for Mizzou women’s basketball and the first for any Missouri team since the men’s basketball team defeated archrival Kansas in 1997. It was also just the seventh time in NCAA women’s basketball history that an unranked team defeated the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
“Honestly it’s pretty emotional. I’m just so proud of these girls,” head coach Robin Pingeton said in a post-game interview on SEC Now. “Just the grittiness and the toughness these eight showed up with. Tonight, we just fought and we fought and we hit some big shots. Different kids stepped up. We bent at times, but we didn’t break. I’m just really proud of these eight.”
Hansen finished the game with 21 points, the biggest two coming on Missouri’s final possession, when she took a pass at the top of the key and drove to her right past South Carolina’s Brea Beal, who was quickly screened off by Mizzou’s Hayley Frank (who also had 21 points). That left the 5-foot-8 Hansen open headed towards the basket.
Another South Carolina defender approached — the much larger, 6-foot-2 Victaria Saxton. But Hansen didn’t panic. Instead, she continued toward the rim, and floated in a heart-stopping layup that Saxton couldn’t reach, which gave Mizzou the lead with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
“Those are just the moments you dream of and you play for ever since you were a kid, and why you play the game,” Hansen said in an interview on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “My teammates had confidence in me to have the ball at the end of the game, and I just kinda went for it.”
The officials immediately went to check the clock to make sure it was correct and both teams called timeouts to discuss their final strategies. But with so little time left, there weren’t many options for either club.
NCAA rules state that with 0.2 or less seconds left, no player has enough time to score. So by rule, even though South Carolina did successfully make its final shot, the basket couldn’t count.
That meant Mizzou won the game and set off a wild celebration on the Mizzou Arena floor, as the Tiger coaches, players, staff, and even some alumni who were in the crowd attending, met at center court to congratulate each other on the win.
“It was just a thrill to see these girls get rewarded for how hard they played and worked for this game,” Pingeton said. “Even though we were shorthanded, these girls just focused in on this game. These girls wanted this moment and they really wanted to win this game. I’m just so proud. It was a collective effort for sure.”
Both teams got off to a slow start early, but South Carolina led 12-6 late in the first quarter. Mizzou rallied and grabbed its first lead early in the second quarter at 14-12.
Later in that frame, the Tigers went on an 8-1 run to go up 27-19, and held that lead until South Carolina tied the score at 45 in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Mizzou controlled the action early in the fourth quarter and led by as many as six points, three different times in the final minutes of regulation. But South Carolina rallied each time, and managed to send the game to overtime on a putback basket by 6-foot-5 All-American center Aliyah Boston.
Both teams had a chance to win in regulation, but Mizzou had a turnover on its final possession and South Carolina’s Zia Cooke missed a shot at the buzzer, so the game went to overtime instead.
The Gamecocks scored the first five points of overtime, as it was clear the limited amount of available Missouri players were running out of gas. But the Tigers kept pushing and scored the final six points of the game on baskets by Hansen, Frank, and Hansen again to win it at the end.
Pingeton said she talked to her players about not giving in.
“I just told them, ‘we’ve gotta keep believing. We’ve come this far, let’s not just surrender now’,” Pingeton said of her messag. “We’ve got to keep fighting. Our girls were flat out exhausted, there’s no doubt about it. We just had to dig deeper.
“I told the girls, ‘the pain of regret if we don’t empty our tanks on this floor tonight, will be far worse than us emptying them and coming up short’. So we just had to find a way to battle and they certainly did that tonight.”
The victory, by far Mizzou’s biggest of the season, lifted the Tigers’ overall record to 12-2 and gave them a 1-0 start in Southeastern Conference play, while South Carolina fell to 12-1 and 0-1 in league play.
“This is one game and there’s a lot of games left in our season,” Pingeton said. “Most importantly, we want to get healthy and it’s got to be on to the next. There’s just too many games and this is SEC is just so challenging night in and night out, but this was a great start for us.”
The Tigers will be back on the court on Sunday, January 2, with another SEC game. This time, on the road against Vanderbilt in a contest that is scheduled to tipoff at 2 p.m.
Mizzou’s next home game is slated for next Thursday, January 6, when the Tigers will host Auburn at Mizzou Arena. That game will tipoff at 7 p.m., and like the Vanderbilt game, will be televised on the SEC+ Network.
South Carolina 69
| ## | Player | GS | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | ORB-DRB | REB | PF | A | TO | BLK | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | Aliyah Boston | * | 28 | 7-14 | 1-2 | 2-4 | 5-7 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 17 |
| 01 | Zia Cooke | * | 36 | 4-19 | 2-8 | 0-1 | 0-2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 03 | Destanni Henderson | * | 41 | 2-12 | 0-3 | 3-4 | 2-2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 12 | Brea Beal | * | 38 | 3-7 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3-7 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 05 | Victaria Saxton | * | 24 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3-2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 10 | Kamilla Cardoso | 20 | 7-9 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 4-4 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 14 | |
| 11 | Destiny Littleton | 12 | 1-4 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 02 | Eniya Russell | 5 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 15 | Laeticia Amihere | 16 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| 23 | Bree Hall | 5 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TM | TEAM | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | – | 225 | 29-76 | 6-21 | 5-9 | 20-27 | 47 | 15 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 69 |
Missouri 70
| ## | Player | GS | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | ORB-DRB | REB | PF | A | TO | BLK | STL | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 | Hayley Frank | * | 43 | 7-8 | 3-4 | 4-4 | 0-3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| 01 | Lauren Hansen | * | 42 | 8-19 | 2-5 | 3-3 | 1-6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| 00 | LaDazhia Williams | * | 38 | 5-14 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 3-9 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 04 | Mama Dembele | * | 44 | 4-10 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| 13 | Haley Troup | * | 39 | 1-7 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 0-5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 24 | Kiya Dorroh | 8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1-2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| 02 | Sara-Rose Smith | 11 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TM | TEAM | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TOTALS | – | 225 | 25-58 | 7-15 | 13-16 | 6-31 | 37 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 70 |
| Mizzou Tigers Women’s Basketball Upcoming Schedule |
| Sun., January 2 — at Vanderbilt — 2 pm |
| Thu., January 6 — vs. Auburn — 7 pm |
| Sun., January 9 — at Arkansas — 2 pm |
| Thu., January 13 — at #21 LSU — 7 pm |
| Mon., January 17 — vs. #13 Georgia — 6 pm |
| Sun., January 23 — vs. Texas A&M — 5 pm |
| Thu., January 27 — at Mississippi State — 5:30 pm |
| All Mizzou home basketball games will be played at Mizzou Arena. |