Smith's 23 leads No. 19 Missouri women past K-State 73-59

Dec 1, 2017, 04:05 am

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Amber Smith hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 23 points and No. 19 Missouri defeated Kansas State 73-59 on Thursday night in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

Cierra Porter matched her season high with 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Tigers (6-1) in their first regular-season meeting against a former Big 12 rival.

Missouri made 10 of 21 3-pointers and shot 52 percent (31 of 60) and held the Wildcats (5-2) to 39 percent (24 of 62), including 5 of 19 behind the arc.

Missouri made seven 3-pointers and held K-State to 28 percent shooting overall to take a 41-22 lead at the half. Smith scored seven-straight points in a 9-0 run in the first quarter and Jordan Chavis hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Smith had a basket during a late 7-0 run as Missouri upped its advantage to 22 points.

K-State closed the third quarter with a 10-0 run, including six points from Cymone Goodrich, to pull within 55-42 and cut the deficit to eight in the fourth quarter. Smith had three treys in the final period, two of them helped keep the lead in double figures late.

Kayla Goth had 17 points for the Wildcats and Peyton Williams scored 13 with nine boards.