MSSU women to play 17th-ranked Missouri Western

(From MSSU Lions Athletic News)

The Missouri Southern Lions will travel to St. Joseph to take on 17th ranked Missouri Western at the MWSU Fieldhouse on Saturday at 3 p.m.

The Lions (8-1, 2-1 MIAA) are coming off a 48-43 victory Wednesday night over Northwest Missouri State. SeniorSharese Jones led the way for Southern with 14 points, while sophomore Bri Shavers added a career-high 10 points. SeniorKenya Wilson-Brown pulled down a career best eight rebounds to go with her seven points, five assists, and four steals. The Lions shot 31 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free throw line and forced 23 Northwest Missouri turnovers, scoring 19 points on the miscues. Southern had a 35-23 advantage on the boards, including a 14-2 advantage on the offensive boards, leading to a 17-0 lead in second-chance points.

17th ranked Missouri Western (8-0, 3-0 MIAA) handed Pittsburg State their first loss of the season Thursday night 83-75 in St. Joseph. The Griffons led by as many as 21 in the second half but let Pittsburg State back into the game in the fourth quarter. Missouri Western led by 16 to open the final frame, a lead that quickly dropped to nine with 4:29 left in the game. The Griffons would extend the lead to 13 with 3:11 left but a 13-6 Pitt State run pulled the Gorillas within six with :45 left. Missouri Western would made four free throws down the stretch, two by LaQuinta Jefferson and two by Sarafina Handy to claim the eighth win of the season.

The Series
This is the 85th meeting between the sister schools, with Missouri Western holding a 49-32 advantage in the series. Three MWSU wins in the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons were vacated by the NCAA. The longest winning streak for Missouri Western is 12 games from Jan. 13, 1997 thru Feb. 27, 2002 and Southern's longest winning streak was eight games, Feb. 6, 2010 thru Feb. 15, 2014. The streak ended with a 61-56 at Missouri Western in the first meeting last season. Southern holds a 23-17 advantage over their sister school in Joplin and have won the last seven inside The Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. However, the Lions have struggled at MWSU winning only eight times since the series started in 1977. The Lions are 7-1 against Missouri Western in the current decade, that is the best start of any decade in series history.

Last Time vs. Missouri Western
The Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team (16-6, 10-5 MIAA) defeated visiting Missouri Western (11-10, 6-9 MIAA) 81-69 Saturday afternoon on Robert Corn Court inside The Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
In a game that saw five ties in the first seven minutes, Missouri Western took control at the 11:13 mark of the first half as they built and maintained a six point lead until the 5:23 mark of the half. Southern started to whittle away at the lead as the Lions took over at the 2:33 mark on a three pointer from Camila Lacerda. Southern closed the first half on a 12-0 run to take a 37-31 lead into the locker room.
Following a technical foul on LaQuinta Jefferson after the first half buzzer sounded, Nic Hartzog sank the two free throws to start the second period. that would ignite a 9-0 run to start the half and make it a 21-0 run over seven and half minutes of play. That would be Southern's largest lead of the game at 17, 49-32, before Western would scratch its way back to within seven using a 14-4 run at 53-46 with just over 12 minutes to play. The Lions would answer as they pushed the lead back to 15, 62-47, using a 9-1 run that was ignited by a jumper fromLex Fitzpatrick. During that run Hartzog went 4-4 from the charity stripe and Jenson Maydew dialed it up from long distance right in front of the Southern bench to end the threat.
Lacerda led the way offensively for the Lions as she finished with a career-high 25 points while Hartzog added 20. Maydew led the way on the board as she pulled down eight to go with her eight points on the day. Fitzpatrick and Lacerda combined for nine out of Southern's 13 assists on the day while Hartzog came up with four out of the seven steals for the team.Sharese Jones added nine points and four rebounds for The Green & Gold despite early foul trouble.
For the game Southern finished 21-51 from the field for 41 percent and came within three of setting a new single game record for free throws made as they sank 35-42. The Lions also out rebounded Missouri Western 34-32.

The Coaches
MWSU - Rob Edmisson, 49-40 (4th Season) / 246-59 (11th Season)
MSSU - Ronda Hubbard, 47-16 (3rd Season)

Projected Starters
Missouri Western (8-0, 3-0 MIAA)
3 LaQuinta Jefferson G 6-0 Sr. (Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
5 Sarafina Handy G 5-9 Sr. (Flossmoor, Ill.)
22 Chelsea Dewey G 5-8 Jr. (Gower, Mo.)
30 Miliakere Koyamainavure F 5-9 Sr. (Suva, Fiji)
33 Julia Torres F 6-3 So. (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Missouri Southern (8-1, 2-1 MIAA)
11 Kenya Wilson-Brown G 5-5 Sr. (Arlington, Texas)
14 Tami Morice G 5-11 Sr. (Naperville, Ill.)
24 Deb Holcomb G 5-7 Jr. (Dallas, Texas)
30 Bri Shavers F 6-0 So. (Carrollton, Texas)
44 Sharese Jones G 5-8 Sr. (St. Charles, Mo.)