St. Charles, Mo. – A late rally was not enough for the Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team as they fell 86-80 to the Lindenwood University Lady Lions Saturday afternoon at Hyland Arena.
 
Lindenwood (5-3, 1-1 MIAA) got off to a fast start, scoring on the opening possession and built a 4-0 lead before sophomore Shannon Mitchell hit a short jumper in the paint for Missouri Southern (6-5, 3-1 MIAA). Southern kept the game close until the 1:56 mark when Lindsay Medlen hit a jumper for Lindenwood to make it 16-10. Southern got back within two at 18-16 on a mid-range jumper from senior Deb Holcomb before Lindenwood's Charisse Williams hit a jumper at the buzzer to make it 20-16. That was the first time since Nov. 19 at Minnesota State University at Mankato that Southern has trailed after the opening quarter.
 
Holcomb opened the second quarter with a layup to make it a two point Lindenwood lead, 20-18, but back-to-back layups from Lindenwood pushed their lead to six at 24-18. A three from the left wing for Holcomb cut the lead in half at the 8:25 mark, but back-to-back buckets gave Lindenwood their largest lead of the game, 28-21. After Lindenwood went up 29-22 with 5:42 left in the half, Southern went on a 5-0 run with buckets from junior Julianna Wadsworth and Holcomb to cut the lead down to two 29-27 with 5:04 left in the second quarter. A layup from sophomore Desirea Buerge made it a one point ball game at 34-33 with 2:31 left on the clock and the game went back and forth for the final 2:30 before a free throw from Holcomb with 13.7 seconds sent Southern into the locker room tied with Lindenwood at 36-36.
 
Coming out of the locker room Lindenwood re-took the lead at 38-36 on a layup from Katie Kallie Bildner and added a layup from Medlen for a 40-36 lead before a 6-0 run by Southern capped off by a layup from sophomore Chelsey Henry gave Southern their first lead at 43-42 at the 5:07 mark. A 6-2 run by Lindenwood gave them a 48-45 lead with just over three minutes left in the quarter. Back-to-back buckets from junior Kayla Kivinski cut the Lindenwood lead down to two, 56-54, to end the third.
 
Lindenwood started the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run take a 12-point lead, 66-56, with 7:48 to play. Southern used a 5-0 run, a three from Holcomb and a layup from junior Jasmine Green, to whittle the lead down to seven but Lindenwood answered right back to expand it back to a 10-point ball game, 74-64, with 4:09 to play.  Holcomb went on a 4-0 run of her own to cut it down to 76-70 with 2:46 to play. A 7-1 run, all by Holcomb, made it a four-point ball game at 81-77 with 49 seconds to play and a layup from Henry with 23 seconds left made it a two-point ball game, 81-79. Lindenwood went 5-for-6 at the free throw line down the stretch to pull out the 86-80 win.
 
Holcomb finished with a career-high 35 points for Southern while Lindenwood was led by Bildner with 24 points. Buerge finished with 11 points for Southern while Green added 10. Junior Jenson Maydew led Southern on the boards with eight.
 
The last time Southern had a 30-point scorer was last season at Central Missouri in the 76-73 overtime win on February 20th, Sharese Jones scored 31. The last time in a regulation game was on January 15, 2015 at Lindenwood in a 79-70 win, Nic Hartzog went for 30 against Lindenwood.
 
Southern will take the next week off for finals before heading to Missouri S&T for a non-conference matchup with the Lady Miners. Tip-off from the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on December 19th.