MSSU women fall to Lindenwood 79-71

(From MSSU Lions Athletic News)

St. Charles, Mo. - The Missouri Southern women's basketball team took a 35-31 lead into halftime, and despite Chelsey Henry scoring 22 points, Southern fell 79-71 tonight inside Hyland Arena.

MSSU (9-4. 1-2 MIAA) got a team-high 22 points, 18 in the second half, from senior guard Henry on her way up MSSU's all-time scoring list (1,038), passing Sonya Harlin (1,022) for 13th.

Junior guard Destiny Cozart registered a career-high 18 points on 43-percernt shooting and 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Forward Chasidee Owens poured in 16 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while sophomore forward Zoe Campbell contributed with seven points, including the first 3-pointer of her collegiate career.

Southern fell behind early 8-5, but a layup by Krista Clark followed with a defensive stop and a Henry layup gave the Lions a 9-8 lead. Later in the period, the MSSU found themselves down five (16-11) and came back again after a three by Cozart cut the lead to two and then a reverse layup by Campbell tied it up at 16-16. Down by one, Cozart retrieved the ball and let it fly from the left wing and for a swishing 3-pointer to give the Lions a 22-20 lead heading into the second period.

Lindenwood (9-1, 3-0 MIAA) opened the second period on a 6-0 run off of two turnovers and eventually went into halftime up four thanks to another three-point shot from Cozart to close out the scoring for the Lions in the second half and a defensive effort that forced Lindenwood into 13 turnovers.

Lindenwood responded with a 11-0 run out of the break to go up seven, causing Southern to call a timeout three minutes into the third period. After being limited to four points in the first half, Henry scored seven-straight points to bring the Lions within two with under five minutes to go in the third. Southern got within two as both teams entered the final period of regulation (56-54).

Lindenwood began to pull away with a six-point lead at the 7:18 mark of the fourth. A Henry jumper from the right elbow reduced the lead to a duce exactly two minutes later as LWU called a timeout. Southern battled down the stretch to get back within one (67-66) at the 3:27 mark, but LWU continued to up the lead through converting on free-throws toward an eight-point victory.

The Lions look to rebound on their second game of the road trip as they face the Lincoln Blue Tigers on Saturday at 1:00 pm.