COLUMBIA, Mo. (12/30/18) The Arkansas State womens basketball team concluded the non-conference portion of its 2018-19 schedule with a 70-50 loss at Missouri Sunday afternoon.
Peyton Martin three Red Wolves in double-figures with 14 points, while grabbing a team-high five rebounds. Morgan Wallace also finished in double-figures with 11, while Jireh Washington rounded out the afternoon with 10.
The game featured eight lead changes and six ties, all of which occurred in the first half as A-State jumped out to an 18-16 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Wallace helped the Red Wolves get out to a hot start with a pair of 3-pointers in the final minutes of the period to help put her squad out in front.
Missouri used a 6-0 run to go up 32-25 with 2:23 to go in the half, but A-State cut the lead down to three at 33-30 after Jada Ford knocked down a trey from the corner with under a minute remaining. The A-State defense was key to the teams success in the opening 20 minutes as it held the Tigers without a field for the final 4:07 of the frame.
The Red Wolves continued to hang close midway through the third quarter when Wallace went to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game, but she missed both attempts, two of the teams 20 missed free throws on the day. The Tigers slowly began to stretch out its lead from that point and went on an 8-0 run to close out the period with a 51-38 advantage.
A-State shot 37 percent (19-of-51), but Missouri countered with a 45 percent (21-of-47) clip from the floor. In addition, the Tigers knocked down 23-of-26 (88 percent) of its free throw attempts, while the Red Wolves made just 8-of-28 (29 percent) of its trips to the free throw line.
Sophie Cunningham led Missouri with 20 points, while Amber Smith grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
A-State opens Sun Belt Conference in Jonesboro against Louisiana on Thursday. Tip-off inside First National Bank Arena is set for 7 p.m.
Mizzou will now transition to the conference play as the Tigers host Ole Miss on Thursday at Mizzou Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.
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