Story by Darren Hellwege
Photos by Karen Mitchell

Maddie Stock (10) goes for a layup as a Southern Illinois defender tries to block the shot. Looking on is Morgan Stock (2), Maddie Stock’s twin sister.

The Missouri Tigers women’s basketball team showed the power of their high-octane offense as six players scored at least 10 points and the Tigers blew away Southern Illinois 110-47 Sunday at Mizzou Arena. The win, Missouri’s fifth in a row, runs the Tigers’ record to 9-2. The Salukis fell to 1-8.

Bri Kulas and Maddie Stock led the Missouri offense with 22 points each. Sydney Crafton had 12, Lianna Doty contributed 11 and Liz Smith and Liene Priede chipped in 10 points each.

“I think we’re playing really unselfish basketball right now,” Tigers coach Robin Pingeton said after the game. “A lot of kids are shooting the ball extremely well, I thought we created a lot with our defense. It makes it real easy when you got players coming off the bench playing as well as they do.”

The 110 points is the team’s ninth best finish in program history and the first time since 2005 that they cracked the century mark.

Overall the Tigers got 50 points from the reserves, nearly half from Stock, who scored all 22 of her points in the second half. It’s part of an offensive diversity that could pose big problems for SEC defenses once the league season starts.

“We’ve got jump shooters, people who can take it to the basket and our post players, we’ve got every kind of scorer,” said Crafton, the only Tiger who’s played a full four years at Missouri.

SIU came in with just one victory, by just a point against Southeast Missouri, a team Missouri beat by 29. The Tigers led in all but the first few seconds of the game and jumped out to an early lead of 25-13 in the first 10 minutes. The team shot 57.7 percent and the pressure defense led to 23 SIU turnovers.

The dismal situation from the Salukis’ viewpoint wasn’t helped by foul trouble for their leading scorer. Guard Cartaesha Macklin came in averaging 13.9 points a game, but picked up three fouls in the first half and got her fourth less than five minutes into the second half. Still, she managed to lead SIU with 13 points.

Missouri’s ability to share the ball was seen particularly in the second half, as the Tigers got 17 assists on their 23 field goals. Doty led the way overall with seven assists. The rebounding numbers were similar to the scoring figures, with Darian Saunders leading the team off the bench with six (in six minutes of play,) followed by five from Kulas and Doty and four each from Smith, Crafton, Stock and Priede.

The Tigers play next with a short turnaround, taking on Morgan State (4-7) on Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. at home and Murray State (7-3) Thursday, Dec. 20 also at Mizzou Arena at 7p.m. The Tigers then travel to Memphis (Dec. 29) before starting SEC play Jan. 3 at Georgia.