Jefferson City, Mo. – The Missouri Southern Lions used a career-high 22 points from sophomore Chelsey Henry and double-doubles from junior Jenson Maydew and sophomore Desirea Buerge to come away with the 70-56 victory over the Lincoln Blue Tigers Thursday night inside Jason Gym.
 
Lincoln (1-6, 0-1 MIAA) got off to the early start with a 2-0 and 4-2 lead before a pair of free throws from senior Deb Holcomb tied the game at 4-4 and a layup from sophomore Chelsey Henry gave Missouri Southern (6-4, 3-0 MIAA) their first lead at 6-4 with 7:07 left in the opening quarter. A three from Henry at the 4:52 mark made it 9-4 Lions and that was the largest lead of the quarter until back-to-back three pointers from junior Jenson Maydew made it 18-12 with 32 seconds left. A layup from Lincoln's Erica Gibbons at the buzzer made it an 18-14 game.
 
Gibbons opened the second quarter with another layup to make it 18-16 and a free throw from Citali Lopez cut the Southern lead down to one, 18-17 before sophomore Desirea Buerge put back a missed shot to make it 20-17. The lead would stay between three and two points until the media time out at the 2:38 mark. Coming out of the time out Hunter Yoakum drove the lane to tie the game at 28-28 and cap off a 9-2 Blue Tigers run. Back-to-back jumpers from Holcomb ended the run and gave the Lions a 32-28 lead before junior Julianna Wadsworth split the Lincoln defense to make it 34-28 with just over a minute to play. After a jumper from LU's Gibbons, junior Jasmine Green hit a running jumper in the paint at the buzzer to send Southern into the locker room with the 36-30 lead.
 
Henry got thing started in the third quarter with a jumper to push the Southern lead up to eight, but Lincoln's Gibbons answered on the next possession with a second chance jumper to make it 38-32 with just over 8:30 left in the quarter. Southern then went on a 5-0 run, a jumper from Henry and an old fashioned three-point play from Buerge, to take their largest lead of the game at 43-32 with 6:12 to play in the third. Another layup from Buerge, this one at the 4:28 mark, gave the Lions a 46-34 lead. Thirty seconds later a layup from Maydew made it a 14 point lead and Green drove the lane at the 3:23 mark to make it a 16 point advantage, 50-34. Lincoln used a 12-2 run to make it 52-46 with just over 40 ticks left in the third before junior Julianna Wadsworth drained a three from the right wing to push the lead back to nine, 55-46 headed into the final quarter.
 
The Blue Tigers opened the final period on a 7-2 run to make it a three point game at 56-53 with 7:12 to play. Over those next seven minutes Southern answered that 7-2 run with a 14-3 run to seal the 70-56 victory.
 
For the game, Southern out shot the Blue Tigers 40 percent (28-for-70) to 38.6 percent (22-for-57) from the field and the Lions out rebounded Lincoln 42-38. Southern was led by Henry's career high 22 points with both Buerge, 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Maydew, 12 points and 10 board, recording double-doubles. Senior Amelia Bramer led Southern in assists with four while Maydew dished out three. Lincoln was led by Hunter Yoakum with 20 points and Gibbons added 12.
 
Southern will travel to St. Charles on Saturday to take on the Lady Lions of Lindenwood University in a 1:30 p.m. game inside Hyland Arena.