The Missouri Southern Women's Basketball squad (11-6, 5-6 MIAA) opens the second half of their MIAA schedule at Lincoln University on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. inside Jason Gym.
The Last Time Out for the Lions (11-6, 5-6 MIAA)
Pittsburg, Kan. - 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.
The Last Time Out for the Blue Tigers (7-10, 3-8 MIAA)
WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Four players scored double figures, with Hunter Yoakum and Zuri Hill each nearly posting double-doubles, as the Lincoln women's basketball team beat Central Missouri, 82-76.
Lincoln (7-10, 3-8 MIAA) scored 28 points in the first quarter, much of which came on a 15-5 run through the middle of the period. The Blue Tigers held Central Missouri to just 17 points in the first stanza en route to a 46-36 advantage heading into halftime. Lincoln made seven of its 10 shots from long distance in the opening half and shot .531 from the floor while holding a 24-9 edge in rebounding.
Central Missouri (6-9, 5-5 MIAA) made it interesting in the second half, out-scoring Lincoln, 19-15, in the third period to cut the Blue Tigers' lead down to 61-55. The Jennies then opened the fourth quarter on a 12-8 run to pull within 69-67 of the Blue Tigers with 4:29 remaining.
Lincoln scored the game's next eight points, however, with six of those points coming from the free throw line. UCM fought back, hitting a jumper, and then scoring five quick points of LU turnovers to cut the Lincoln lead down to 77-74. After Lincoln went 1-for-2 at the line, UCM hit a layup to once again cut the Blue Tiger lead down to two.
The Jennies employed a full court press through the game's final minute, but Sarah Neptune found a way through and was sent to the line with 28 seconds remaining. Neptune hit both free throws, the Hill came up with a rebound on the ensuing possession to give Lincoln back the ball. The Blue Tigers then hit two more shots at the charity stripe to end the game with a six-point win.
Yoakum led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds while dishing four assists. Hill finished with 20 points and a game-high nine rebounds while Neptune added 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. Dorian Briggs also reached double digits, scoring 13 to go with a team-high five assists and four rebounds.
Lizzie Nessling and Asia McCaskill rounded out Lincoln's scoring with eight points apiece. Nessling also pulled down seven rebounds while McCaskill grabbed six, blocked three shots and dished an assist.Azaria Nave added four boards and three assists to the Lincoln effort while Jasmine Guthrie provided two rebounds.
For the game, the Blue Tigers shot .458 from the floor and .579 from long range while finishing with a 48-30 advantage in rebounding. The win was the first on the road for Lincoln this season and the first by the Blue Tigers over Central Missouri since 2011-12.
The Series
This is the 34th meeting between Southern and the Blue Tigers. Southern holds a 28-5 advantage over Lincoln including an 11-4 record in Jefferson City. The Lions are 15-1 in Joplin against Lincoln and 5-1 inside The Leggett & Platt Athletic Center while, Southern leads the series 2-0 on neutral courts. Since Lincoln rejoined the MIAA in 2010, Southern holds a 6-2 advantage over the Blue Tigers. The longest winning streak for the Lions is 14 games and started with an 86-60 win on Jan. 13, 1990 in Joplin and lasted through a 74-64 win in Joplin on Dec. 20, 1997. After departing the MIAA for the Heartland Conference in 1999-2000 the two schools only met twice until the return of Lincoln to the MIAA. Those two meetings were both won by Southern, 63-58 in Joplin on Nov. 27, 1999 and an 81-44 win in Joplin on Nov. 29, 2002.
Last Time vs. Lincoln
Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern women's basketball team secured a bid to Kansas City today as the Lions defeated visiting Lincoln 79-69 on Robert Corn Court inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. Southern (20-6, 14-5 MIAA) picks up its first 20-win season since the 1995-96 campaign when the Lions went 23-6. The Lions also secure at least the No. 4 seed in Kansas City with No. 3 still a possibility depending on the outcome of the Pittsburg State-Washburn game later in the evening. The Lions were led offensively by a career night fromJenson Maydew. Maydew scored a career-high 18 points and pulled down seven boards. Camila Lacerda came up just three rebounds shy of a triple-double when the senior scored 15, dished out ten assists and added seven rebounds. Sharese Jones picked up her seventh double-double of the season with 15 points and ten rebounds, while Shawnee Phillips scored 13. The Lions opened up an 11-3 lead at the 15:39 mark of the first half after a layup from Jenson Maydew off an assist from Lacerda. A three from Lacerda at the 10:31 mark gave the Lions a 12-point lead (19-7) and a pair of free throws from Jones pushed the Lions' lead up to 14 (21-7) the next trip down. The lead reached 14 twice more in the half, the last on a layup from Lex Fitzpatrick with 1:42 to go and the Lions took a nine-point lead (42-33) into the break after a layup from Lincoln as time ran out. Southern shot 50 percent in the half and Lacerda had eight points and six assists at the break. Jones led all scorers with nine points on 3-4 shooting. A three pointer from Lacerda with 16:54 left in the game put the Lions up by 15 (53-38) and a layup from Maydew with 7:30 to go gave the Lions a 21 point advantage (67-46). That would be the largest lead of the game for the Lions as a three from Fizpatrick with 6:46 left gave the Lions a 70-49 lead as well. Southern shot 51 percent from the field and 48 percent from long-range. The Lions made 74 percent of their free-throws and had a 12-6 advantage on the offensive boards, leading to a 16-2 lead in second-chance points. The Lions out rebounded the Blue Tigers 43-23.
The Coaches
Missouri Southern
Ronda Hubbard is in her 15th year on the staff at Missouri Southern and her third year at the helm. During her 15 years with the Lions, she has helped the team to a 240-164 record, including a 50-21 record in her first two plus seasons at the helm of the Lions program. Last season's 20 wins was the first time the women's team had won 20 games since the 1995-96 season.
Lincoln
After engineering the MIAA's biggest turn-around last season,Nicole Collier enters her fourth season as the head coach of the Lincoln women's basketball team in 2015-16.
In 2014-15, Collier led the Blue Tigers to a seven-win improvement, taking a program that won two games the year before into the MIAA Women's Basketball Championship. Lincoln went 12-14 last year with four of those losses coming in the game's final minute. Three Blue Tigers earned All-MIAA honors as Lincoln made its third postseason appearance in the past four years.
Probable Starters
Missouri Southern (11-6, 5-6 MIAA)
1 Dru Clark G 5-7 So. (Collinsville, Okla.)
11 Kenya Wilson-Brown G 5-5 Sr. (Arlington, Texas)
21 Desirea Buerge F 6-0 Fr. (Webb City, Mo.)
24 Deb Holcomb G 5-7 Jr. (Dallas, Texas)
44 Sharese Jones G 5-8 Sr. (St. Charles, Mo.)
Lincoln (7-10, 3-8 MIAA)
1 Hunter Yoakum G 5-6 Jr. (Dixon, Mo.)
5 Dorian Briggs G 5-8 Sr. (Fort Smith, Ark.)
10 Sarah Neptune G 5-6 Sr. (Marshfield, Mo.)
32 Zuri Hill F 6-0 Sr. (Covington, Ky.)
45 Lizzie Nessling G 5-8 Sr. (Thayer, Mo.)
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