COLUMBIA, MO – As the season progresses, so should a team.

Mistakes that cost Kansas a game in November should be long gone come February. However, the Jayhawks turned the ball over 19 times and came out flat in the second half Sunday afternoon, allowing the Tigers to go on a run and sneak out of Mizzou Arena with a 62-59 victory.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Missouri

A photo gallery of the Kansas women's basketball game against Missouri Saturday afternoon in Columbia.

Not only was Kansas making these mistakes early in the year, but they’re also the same problems that cost it a victory at Texas Tech on Wednesday.

“I’m very disappointed,” freshman forward Nicollette Smith said. “We’ve been prepping and prepping, trying to finish off the season strong, and then we have these two hard losses.”

Smith carried Kansas in the first half, shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and free-throw line to score 11 points. That wasn’t enough as the Jayhawks trailed 31-30 at halftime. Coach Bonnie Henrickson credits that to an inability to grab offensive rebounds.

“I was disappointed in our lack of effort to the offensive glass,” Henrickson said. “The shooter’s got to think it’s going in, but everybody else on the floor has got to think that’s my chance at a shot.”

Like Texas Tech, Missouri stormed out of the locker room with a 12-2 run – to which Kansas had no answer.

Tiger guard Alyssa Hollins took over the game with 19 of her team’s final 24 points to score a game high 27.

After Missouri’s initial surge, sophomore guard Danielle McCray tried to pull her team back with back-to-back three-pointers.

“She hit a couple of threes, got to the offensive glass, got fouled and put it on the floor,” Henrickson said. “That’s what she’s capable of and that’s where she’s hard to guard.”

McCray was tough defensively during that time too, knocking two passes out of bounds on one possession. However, Hollins ended that possession with a fade away trey to beat the shot clock and push the lead to 48-40 with 10:49 left.

Kansas kept up with Missouri down the stretch but turnovers prevented them from recapturing the lead.

“If we could cut our turnovers to 12 or 13, I don’t know that there’s anybody right now in the league that could beat us,” Henrickson said. “We shoot the basketball well once we get it, but we don’t get enough possessions.”

McCray thinks that her team’s turnover difficulties are more mental than physical.

“It’s not that we can’t make the pass, it’s just that we’re not focusing and concentrating on how to make the pass,” McCray said.

Despite their problems, the Jayhawks cut the lead to one with two minutes left, thanks to a shot clock-beating layup from sophomore guard Sade Morris.

With 26 seconds left and the Jayhawks down 60-57, Tiger forward Jessra Johnson missed a shot and freshman center Krysten Boogaard collected the rebound, but in the traffic she fell down and was whistled for traveling – the team’s 19th and final turnover.

Hollins sank a pair of free throws then sophomore guard LaChelda Jacobs hit a layup with three seconds left to end the scoring.

This was Missouri’s first victory in the past 11 games, but Kansas knew from experience that it wouldn’t lie down.

“We were in the same position as them last year, so we knew what we were getting into,” senior forward Taylor McIntosh said. “We knew they were going to be hungry for a win, and we didn’t play like that in the second half.”

The season wraps up in a hurry for the Jayhawks, and Henrickson thinks her team is eager to take it head on.

“We’ve got a stretch where we’re going to play three games in a week, and I think we’d all like to play tomorrow and get this taste out of our mouths, especially two games of it,” Henrickson said. “We’ve been stewing on this for about six days now.”

— Edited by Daniel Reyes