Missouri women's basketball hosting Saint Louis

Hayley Frank and the Missouri Tigers will host Saint Louis tonight at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. (Courtesy of Mizzou Athletics)
Hayley Frank and the Missouri Tigers will host Saint Louis tonight at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. (Courtesy of Mizzou Athletics)

COLUMBIA -- The Missouri Tigers women's basketball team has had a long time to think about its first loss.

The Tigers started the season 6-0, then dropped their first contest of the season to No. 11 Virginia Tech in the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship on Nov. 23.

Now Missouri returns to the court at Mizzou Arena facing the Saint Louis Billikens at 7 p.m. tonight.

Graduate guard Haley Troup led the Tigers against the Hokies with 21 points, matching her career high and bringing her season average to 10.1 points per game. Troup is joined in double-digits by senior forward Hayley Frank (13.3) and senior guard Lauren Hansen (11.1).

Frank scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds against Virginia Tech.

The strength of the Tigers through their first seven games has been the defense, which hadn’t allowed more than 55 points to any opponent before giving up 73 to Virginia Tech.

Missouri is holding opponents to just 34.7 percent shooting, making them 39th in the country.

Saint Louis (2-7) enters off a win Sunday against Air Force.

Senior guard Kyla McMakin (5-foot-11) leads the Billikens with 19.7 points per game, while senior center Brooke Flowers (6-5) is averaging 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per contest. McMakin is a three-time Big South All-Conference first team member with more than 1,600 career points entering the season.

Tonight will be the 26th all-time meeting, with the Tigers holding a commanding 24-1 lead. The Tigers won 69-53 last year in St. Louis.