Cold shooting hurts MSSU women in 68-45 loss to PSU

(From MSSU Lions Athletic News)

A cold shooting second half doomed the Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team Saturday afternoon as they fell to rival Pittsburg State 68-45 in John Lance Arena.

Both teams started slow as Pittsburg State (13-4, 7-4 MIAA) went 9-for-28 from the field while the Lions (11-6,-5-6 MIAA) went 8-for-22. Junior Deb Holcomb got the scoring started on the second possession of the game as she drained a jumper off the assist from sophomore Dru Clark. Pitt State scored three layups in a row to take a 6-2 lead and held the lead for the rest of the quarter despite a pair of layups from seniorSharese Jones that cut the Gorillas lead to one twice at 8-7 and 10-9.

The second quarter started with a pair of free throws for Pitt State's Mikaela Burgess to push the lead back to three before Clark drained a three to give the game its second tie of the afternoon. The Gorillas regained the lead on a Burgess three and never looked back in the quarter as they took a 24-18 lead into the locker room. Southern was held scoreless for 6:42 in the second before a layup from Holcomb with five seconds left.

Senior Kenya Wilson-Brown started the second half with a jumper off the assist from Jones to cut the Gorillas lead to 24-20. After a bucket from Pitt State, Holcomb cut the lead back to four at 26-22 off a pull up jumper. Pittsburg State then went on a 14-0 run to open a 40-22 lead with 4:51 left in the quarter and pushed their lead up to 20 at 47-27 on a three pointer from Shelby Lopez with 48 seconds left in the third.

The fourth quarter started with both teams trading buckets before back-to-back three pointers from PSU's Paige Lungwitz and Burgess gave the Gorillas a 58-34 with 6:19 to play. The Pitt State lead grew to as many as 29 on a layup from Paige Imhoff before the Lions scored the final three buckets of the game.

Holcomb led the Lions with 18 points going 8-for-18 from the field while pulling down six rebounds. Jones added 14 points going 5-for-11 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line and led the team in rebounds with eight and assists with three.

Southern is back in action on Thursday as they travel to Jefferson City to take on the Lincoln Blue Tigers. Tip off from Jason Gym is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.