Dowell’s last-second layup gives Mizzou women’s basketball thrilling win over Cal

Shannon Dowell had an opportunity, and she took it.

With Mizzou women’s basketball down by one in the waning seconds of regulation to Cal, Dowell dribbled down the lane and converted a layup with 1.7 seconds left to put MU ahead. Cal couldn’t get a shot off by the time the final buzzer sounded, and in a battle of clawed beasts, the Tigers defeated the Golden Bears 68-67 courtesy of Dowell’s last-second winner.

The Tigers have won four straight games and are 8-2.

Neither team had a lead of more than seven points the entire game. Mizzou trailed 65-63 with under a minute remaining, then took the lead on a corner 3-pointer from Grace Slaughter that visited every part of the rim before dropping. On the ensuing possession out of a Cal timeout, Mjracle Sheppard converted a contested layup. Shannon Dowell saw a makeable floater bounce off the back rim, but not too long after, the Tigers forced a turnover with under 10 seconds left to regain possession.

Dowell then sealed the win with heroics at the rim.

Slaughter and Dowell led the way in scoring with 21 and 25 points, respectively. Per usual, they attacked the basket often and, more importantly, did so effectively. The two also combined for 17 rebounds.

The issue was that no one else stepped up 0n offense, as the next-highest scorer after Dowell and Slaughter was Jordana Reisma, who finished with eight points. Mizzou wasted little time getting the ball to Reisma early on, who dominated the paint in the first quarter. But Reisman went scoreless in the second and third quarters, as the Golden Bears tightened up on the interior.

Mizzou couldn’t get much going from beyond the arc. A lot of that had to do with its insistence on getting the ball in the paint, but the Tigers made just 5-of-13 attempts from downtown. Luckily, they got enough production at the rim to offset the lack of scoring from beyond the arc, all the way down to the last second.

The Tigers also shot 13-of-14 from the free-throw line. The Golden Bears only had six attempts from the charity stripe, making four of them.

Mizzou will stay home for its next game against SIUE. Tip-off is slated for Sunday at 2 p.m.