Mizzou women’s basketball starts hot, but can’t take down Texas in conference opener

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Tigers couldn't pick up a victory over the Longhorns despite lights out shooting.

In the first game of SEC play, Mizzou women's basketball fell to No. 2 Texas 89-71. Head Coach Kellie Harper's ladies jumped out to an early 17-5 lead in the first quarter fueled five consecutive three pointers in the first four minutes.

"I addressed in the locker, I think for the first time all season, I complimented their toughness. I also told them that that's now the expectation," Harper said. "I think we did some good things, out-matched at times and, you know, thought we just wore down there in the second half. Obviously, when you're playing a team like Texas, your margin for error is so thin, I mean, you've got to play near perfect and we obviously didn't do that. You know, we'll definitely find a lot of positives from this."

You can watch the full postgame press conference with Coach Harper in the video player below.

Mizzou lead most of the way through the first half, but the Longhorns came out fighting with a 27-point third quarter to take a double digit lead, and continued to extend it through the remainder of the game, putting away the Tigers 89-71.

You can watch the full postgame press conference with Texas head coach Vic Schaefer and players in the video player below.

As a team, Kellie Harper's team shot 12-19 from long range, and 22-42 from the floor for one of their best shooting performances of the season. Grace Slaughter lead the team in scoring with 20 points, playing nearly every minute of the game. Abbey Schreacke and Chloe Sotell both reached double figures as well with 15 and 11 respectively.

Up Next - The Tigers will travel to Lexington to face Kentucky on Sunday, Jan. 4. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 11 a.m.