St. Charles, Mo. - Coming off a 40 point win over Lincoln on Thursday night the Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team turns their focus to Lindenwood University for a 1 p.m. Saturday matchup inside Robert F. Hyland Arena.

Last Time Out for the Lions (12-6, 6-6 MIAA)
Jefferson City, Mo. – The Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team used a balance attack Thursday night as they handily defeated Lincoln University 78-38 inside Jason Gym.
Senior Sharese Jones led the balanced attack with 14 points while fellow senior Tami Morice and sophomore Kayla Kivinski added 11 each and junior Deb Holcomb and freshman Chelsey Henry added 10.
Lincoln was led by Hunter Yoakum with 10 points and Asia McCaskill with eight. Zuri Hill led the Blue Tigers in rebounding with nine and Lizzie Nessling added six to go with her team leading two assists.
Lincoln started the game off with a jumper from Hunter Yoakum before the Lions went on a 12-0 run started by a lay-up from Jones. Sophomore Dru Clark, celebrating her birthday, added five points during the run.  A 5-0 run by Lincoln narrowed the Lions' lead down to five at 12-7 before Holcomb drained a three from the top of the key. Morice's pull up jumper in the lane pushed the Southern lead back to 10 at 17-7 and the Lions never looked back. Kivinski added a three as six Lions scored in the opening frame with seven assists on eight buckets.
In the second quarter the Lions pushed their lead up to 16, 27-11, as freshman Desirea Buerge scored on a layup with 6:50 to play and a three from Holcomb at the 3:35 mark gave Southern a 33-15 lead. Morice drained a three with 1:46 to play to give Southern their largest lead of the half a 36-15.
For the half the Lions shot 47 percent from the field going 14-for-30 and 43 percent (6-for-14) from the three point range. Six Lions scored in the first half with Holcomb leading the way with eight, while Jones added seven. Buerge collected four steals in the paint, a career high, while Morice and Jones each dished out three assists.
The Lions held Lincoln to 29 percent shooting from the field in the first half allowing just three Blue Tiger offensive rebounds. Four Blue Tigers scored in the first half with McCaskill leading the way with five, Jasmine Guthrie, Hill, and Yoakum each added four.
The second half saw the Lions pick up right where they left off as Jones made a driving bucket and Holcomb connected on a jumper to give Southern a 21 point lead at 40-19. The jumper by Holcomb sparked another 12-0 run as Buerge made a layup, Jones added a layup and a three pointer, and Clark drained a three from the right wing. After a layup and made free throw from LU's Lizzie Nessling, Kivinski sank a pair of free throws followed by a layup to push the lead back to 32 at 54-22 with 1:47 left in the quarter. Morice ended the third quarter as she drained a three off the assist from Kivinski.
Sophomore Bri Shavers started the fourth quarter with a layup to give the Lions a 39 point lead, 63-23, before Henry made a three from the right wing to put the Lions up 42 and senior Sayna Azad hit a three from the top of the key for a 45 point lead, 70-25, with 5:42 to play. The Lions' lead grew to 47 on another three from Henry before Lincoln closed the game out on a 7-0 run for the 78-38 final.
The Lions shot 46 percent (30-for-66) from the field including 43 percent (13-for-30) from three point range. Southern was just one made three pointer away from tying the school record for most threes in a game which the Lions have done three times, the latest was at Truman State on January 25, 2003. Southern out rebounded the Blue Tigers 37-33 allowing just nine Lincoln offensive rebounds. Buerge led the way defensively as she collected five steals and pulled down four rebounds to go with her eight points.
Lincoln shot 30 percent from the field (14-for-46) and 19 percent from three point range (3-for-16).

Last Time Out for Lindenwood (7-11, 3-9 MIAA)
The Lindenwood women's basketball team lost its seventh consecutive game on Thursday night to Pittsburg State in Hyland Arena by a final of 87-74.
 The Lady Lions scored over 70 points for the first time in five games.  Jenny Rocha had a strong night with 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 8-of-12 from the free throw line.  Kassidy Gengenbacher dropped 18 tough points with a team-high eight rebounds.  Lindenwood was outrebounded  36-26 and allowed 10 three-pointers from the Gorillas.
 The Lady Lions did not have a good start to the evening as Pittsburg State tallied a 19-9 lead after the first quarter.  The Lady Lions turned the ball over seven times and shot just 36 percent from the field.  Just three Lindenwood players scored in the opening frame, including five points from Rocha.  The Gorillas scored 12 points in the paint and had six bench points.
 Lindenwood addressed the ball security issue and committed just four turnovers for the rest of the game.  The Lady Lions came out with a huge second quarter that began with a 6-0 Lindenwood run.  Gengenbacher hit two free-throws and a layup, while Charisse Williams knocked down a jumper to bring Lindenwood within four points.  Pittsburg State quickly put a buffer on its lead by widening the gap to 11 in a matter of a few minutes.  The Gorillas continued to hold a comfortable lead for the remainder of the half, but a Bri Wilber three-pointer with 46 seconds left pulled Lindenwood within seven at the end of the half.
 Rocha was determined to bring Lindenwood back as she hit jumper, and Williams followed with back-to-back free-throws to make it a 37-34 ball game.  In the next 1:30, Gengenbacher and Kylie Ferguson hit back-to-back, but the Gorillas continued to score and Lindenwood was still down by two points.  Pittsburg State scored seven second-chance points in the quarter, which allowed for a 10-point lead for the Gorillas at the end of the third quarter.
 Gengenbacher hit her third and final three-pointer of the game just 15 second into the final quarter to pull Lindenwood within seven.  The three-point shooting for the Gorillas proved to be too much for the Lady Lions down the stretch.  The Lady Lions tallied just five three-pointers in the game while Pittsburg State had 30 points from behind the arc.
 Rocha compiled her second-career 20-plus point game on the season as well as in her career.  Rocha hit eight free-throws which has put her just three makes away from entering the top-10 in school history.  Gengenbacher is six three-point makes away from taking sole possession of first place in school history for career-three-pointers made.

The Series
This is just the ninth meeting in the battle between the Lions and Lady Lions as Southern holds a 8-0 advantage over Lindenwood. This will be the only meeting between the two teams during the MIAA Regular season. Last season Southern swept the Lady Lions of Lindenwood 79-70 in St. Charles and 68-63 in Joplin. Southern is 4-0 in Joplin, including a 3-0 record inside The Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. Since joining the MIAA Lindenwood is 0-5 against Missouri Southern and 0-2 inside LPAC.

Last Time vs. Lindenwood
Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern women's basketball team held tough down the stretch and solid defense mixed with free throws helped the Lions defeat Lindenwood 68-63 on Robert Corn Court inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. 
Southern (19-6, 13-5 MIAA) was led offensively by 22 points from Nic Hartzog. She went 10-10 from the free throw line and dished out three assists. Lex Fitzpatrick scored 11 on 4-7 shooting and 3-4 from long range, while Jordan scored eight and Kenya Brown dished out a career-high four assists. All four assists from Brown led to three pointers. 
Both teams started out on fire and traded baskets early on as a jumper from Lindenwood tied the game at 11 at the 15:15 mark. Southern went on an 8-0 run with back-to-back three's from Fitzpatrick to jump ahead 19-11 at the 13:10 mark and MSSU led by 11 (27-16) after a three from Dinyer with 9:32 left in the half. 
Lindenwood cut the lead to five (32-27) with 5:43 to go, but a 5-0 run from Southern, capped by another three from Dinyer, put the Lions up ten with 2:57 to go. The Lions went into the locker room with an eight-point advantage. 
Southern led by six (43-37) after a layup from Hartzog with 17:59 left in the second half, but Lindenwood chipped away at the lead and took a one-point lead (44-43) with 16:11 to go, but a 5-0 run by Southern gave MSSU a four-point lead 48-44 with just under 15 minutes left. 
Lindenwood led by four (52-48) with 11 minutes to go, but the Lions went on a 6-0 run and led 54-52 after a layup from Sharp with 7:52 to go in the game. Back-to-back layups from Hartzog gave the Lions a 62-57 lead with 4:53 to go in the game. 
A third layup from Hartzog pushed the score to 64-57, but Lindenwood scored six in a row to get within one with a minute to go, forcing a Southern timeout. A couple made free throws from Hartzog along with a block and a fast-break layup from Sharp sealed the win for the Lions.

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 241-164 record, including a 51-21 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.

Lindenwood
Tony Francis is entering his sixth season as the head coach of the Lindenwood women's basketball program in 2015-16. Francis turned the women's basketball program around in his first season and led the program through its transition to the NCAA Division II level. He enters the 2015-16 season with a head coaching record of 67-72. Francis took over a Lindenwood program in 2010-11 that had not had a winning season in nine years and promptly [3842]  had one of the top turnarounds in the NAIA.

Probable Starters
Missouri Southern (12-6, 6-6 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.)

Lindenwood (7-11, 3-9 MIAA)
 1    Jenny Rocha    G    5-4    Sr. (O'Fallon, Mo.)
 2    Charisse Williams    G    5-8    Fr. (Ellisville, Mo.)
 5    Kylie Ferguson    G    5-9    So. (Neola, Iowa)
13    Beth Maenpaa    F    6-1    So. (Reedsburg, Wisc.)
15    Kassidy Gengenbacher    G    5-10    Jr. (Quincy, Ill.)