Women’s Basketball Cruises Past Vanderbilt

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A season-best scoring performance helped the University of Missouri women’s basketball team break its losing streak with an 86-69 win over Vanderbilt Thursday night at Mizzou Arena.

Senior forward Hayley Frank (Strafford, Mo.) led the Tigers to victory with 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field.

Senior guard Lauren Hansen (Long Island, N.Y.) contributed 22 points while converting 50 percent from behind the arc. The performance brings her just 19 points shy of the 1,000-point mark for her career.

Junior guard Sara-Rose Smith (Victoria, Australia) finished the contest with 16 points, shooting a perfect 6-of-6 from the field to earn the highest-scoring outing of her career.

The Tigers (15-8, 4-6 SEC) jumped out to an early lead, pouring in 26 points in the first quarter to tie their season-high for an opening period. A 21-5 charge also secured Mizzou’s largest first-quarter lead in SEC play this season as the Tigers led 26-12 after 10 minutes had elapsed.

A strong defensive stand held the Commodores (10-13, 1-8 SEC) without a bucket for the first three minutes of the second quarter and allowed the Tigers to further extend their first-half lead. Mizzou led by as much as 19 points in the second frame and finished the half on top, 43-27.

Vanderbilt began the second half on a quick 7-0 run, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Mizzou’s strong offensive effort. The Tigers answered swiftly with an 8-0 run of their own backed by a pair of 3-point buckets courtesy of Hansen and Smith. Mizzou caught fire as the period came to an end, shooting 8-of-8 from the field to close out the quarter.

The Commodores ended the fourth quarter knocking down four of their last five shots, but it wasn’t enough to top the Tigers’ efforts.

Mizzou shot 56.9 percent from the field, marking the team’s best shooting performance this season while knocking down 50 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. The Commodores shot 39 percent on 61 attempts while only hitting 36 percent of their attempts from three.

UP NEXT

The Tigers look to continue their winning ways on Sunday as they host Alabama in their annual Pink Out game at Mizzou Arena. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network and KTGR.

For all the latest information on Mizzou Women’s Basketball, please visit MUTigers.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Tigers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.