Down the stretch, the tenth-seeded Missouri women’s basketball team was no match for the seventh-seeded Virginia Tech in an 82-51 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hokies led start-to-finish, jumping out to a 6-0 lead to start the game. The Tigers scored the next four points to cut it to 6-4, but that’s as close as MU would get the rest of the game.
After getting down 25-12, the Tigers went on an 8-0 run to slice the Virginia Tech lead to 25-20. After trailing 31-25 at the half, MU once again cut the deficit to five points, when Carlynn Savant made a three-pointer with 18:17 to go in the game. That made it 35-30, Virginia Tech.
After that the Hokies steadily built their lead, thanks to a balanced scoring attack, which featured five players in double-digit scoring. Dawn Chriss finished with a game-high 21 points for Tech, while Kerri Gardin scored 17, had 13 rebounds and dished out six assists.
In her final game as a Tiger, senior LaToya Bond had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists. Savant had nine points and eight rebounds. The Tigers ended the season 21-10.
