Shannon Dowell had an opportunity and she took it.
With the University of Missouri women’s basketball team trailing Cal in the final seconds of the game, Dowell dribbled to the basket and made a layup with 1.7 seconds left to give Missouri the lead. Carr had yet to take a shot when the final buzzer sounded, and the Tigers defeated the Golden Bears 68-67 on Dowell’s last-second game-winner in a battle of clawed beasts.
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The Tigers have won four straight and are 8-2.
Neither team led by more than seven points throughout the game. Mizzou trailed 63-65 with less than a minute left before taking the lead when Grace Slaughter’s corner 3-pointer hit the rim and ended up in the basket. On Cal’s possession following a timeout, Mirakel Shepard completed a contested layup. Shannon Dowell saw a hitable floater bounce off the back rim, but moments later the Tigers forced a turnover to regain possession with less than 10 seconds left.
Dowell then made a strong performance under the basket to seal the victory.
Slaughter and Dowell led the way with 21 and 25 points respectively. As usual, they attacked the basket frequently and, more importantly, did so effectively. The two also combined for 17 rebounds.
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The problem is that no one else stepped up the 0n offense. The second highest scorer after Dowell and Slaughter was Jordana Resma, who ended up with 8 points. Mizzou quickly got the ball to Lesma, who dominated the paint in the first quarter. But Raisman went scoreless in the second and third quarters, and the Golden Bears got tighter in the paint.
Mizzou couldn’t make much progress beyond the arc. A lot of that had to do with their insistence on getting the ball into the paint, but the Tigers took just five of their 13 shots from downtown. Fortunately, they had enough at the basket to make up for the lack of scoring from beyond the arc until the very last second.
The Tigers also shot 13-for-14 from the free throw line. The Golden Bears only made four of their six attempts at the charity stripe.
Mizzou will stay home for the next game against SIUE. Reporting time is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.
