It’s been three years since Missouri joined three other Big 12 schools in leaving the conference for other leagues and on Sunday the highest profile meeting since then between an athletic team from Missouri, now a member of the Southeastern Conference and an athletic team from Kansas State took place in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
For about 23 minutes, the game had the atmosphere of an old time Big Eight showdown between the two schools as they battled back and forth for the lead but it was the proficient three-point shooting of the Tigers and a 29-4 second half run in a 14-minute span that sparked Mizzou to a 67-48 win over K-State Sunday afternoon at Bramlage Coliseum.
Missouri jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the game’s opening minutes before the Wildcats cut the margin down to 10-7. After K-State forced a Tiger timeout with the score 15-14, Mizzou went on a 9-0 run to widen its advantage to 24-14 with 8:51 left in the first half. Still, K-State would battle back and grab the lead twice in the final minutes of the half. The Wildcats had momentum going into halftime when Senior Haley Texada who scored a career-high 30 points in K-State’s first-round win over Akron beat the buzzer with a shot to tie the game 35-35 at intermission.
The second half started off well for the Wildcats as they grabbed a 41-38 lead with 18:21 showing on the clock but the tide turned in a hurry in favor of the Tigers as they launched four consecutive three-pointers on their way to 16 for the game and that sent Missouri on the surge to salt away the victory, Mizzou’s first win at Bramlage in nine years.
Morgan Eye led the Tigers with a game-high 27 points all off of three-pointers while Sierra Michaelis added 16 points. For K-State, which was without senior standout Ashia Woods who suffered a knee injury in the win over Akron was led by Texada’s 15 points, 13 from Breanna Lewis and 10 from Bri Craig. Eye’s nine treys are the most by an opponent in the 27-year history of Bramlage Coliseum
Another key to the Tigers win can be found on the glass where Mizzou out-rebounded K-State 50-31.
Kansas State with the loss sees its season end at 19-14, which included 15 wins at Bramlage, the most at home since the 2002-03 team registered 19 on its home floor while Missouri (20-14) will face the winner of Monday’s game between Michigan and Toledo in the round of 16.
