MIssouri Southern women to play two games in Puerto Rico over the break

(From MSSU Lions Athletic News)

The Missouri Southern women's basketball team takes the court in San Juan, Puerto Rico against a pair of local programs in the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras and Pontifical Catholic University as of 2018 Puerto Rico Basketball Classic.

After going 2-0 last week, the Lions are back even at 2-2 and begin play tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 pm local time/11:00 am Central time versus UPR-RP before facing PCU Wednesday morning at 11:00 am local time/9:00 am Central time. Both match ups can be heard on Fox Sports Joplin where the Lions get their first taste against either team in its history.

Both teams are members of Island-wide Inter-University Athletic League (LAI) and independent at the NCAA Division II level. Since the conferences inception during the 1971-72 season, UPR-RP captured the league championship eight times (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, and 2011) PCU has come out on top in the last two seasons (2016 and 2017).

Quick Notes

Stop the Polls 

The Lions enter this year chosen to finish to 10th in the conference after going 11-17 and 8-11 in MIAA play during the 2017-18 campaign. Defending NCAA Champions Central Missouri was chosen to win the MIAA with 13 first-place votes while Fort Hays received the remaining vote in second as Emporia State (3), Washburn (4), and Central Oklahoma (5) rounded out the top-5. Both UCM and FHSU are ranked in the WBAC National Poll at No. 1 and 12 respectively with the poll remaining the same in the last couple weeks of play.

Leader of the Pride 

Guard Chelsey Henry returns as the only senior from last year's squad and will be looked upon to make sure that all nine newcomers understand what it means to compete in what is the MIAA. She closed out last year's schedule fifth in the MIAA in scoring (17.5 ppg), fourth in free-throw percentage (86.6%), and seventh in field-goal percentage (43.0%) to earn All-MIAA honorable mention while being just 93 points shy of breaking the 1,000 career-point barrier in the green and gold after scoring a team-high 23 points in her season debut.

How many Transfers are we going to take before passing? FOUR!!!
With eight players departing, the coaching staff mapped out the entire college basketball landscape in order to find four transfers and they did in the shape of 6'1 forward Laure Assena (Lipscomb University), 5'10 guard Chasidee Owens (Ouachita Baptist), 5'8 guard Destiny Cozart (John A. Logan), and 6'2 center Jordan Schoenberger (Independence CC).

Up Next

The Lions return to the Leggett and Platt Athletic Center for non-conference action as they host Rogers State (Okla.) on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 1:30 pm.