Edmond, Okla. – The Missouri Southern women's basketball team played No. 16 Central Oklahoma close early, but was unable to keep up as MSSU fell 75-65 to the Bronchos inside Hamilton Field House Saturday afternoon.
 
Junior Desirea Buerge led MSSU (10-10, 7-5 MIAA) with 24 points while also grabbing seven rebounds. Junior guards Chelsey Henry and Dru Clark combined for 23 points and 12 rebounds in the loss. Senior forward Jenson Maydew pulled in a team-high ten rebounds to go along with eight point on the day.
 
UCO (17-3, 8-3 MIAA) received a team-high 22 points from Melinda Murillo who went 7-for-13 from the field. Megan Hartness and Ireon Smith added 13 and 12 points respectively in the victory.
 
Both teams were neck and neck early on in the opening quarter, exchanging one lead for another to the point where the Lions took a one point lead at the 2:18 mark (14-13) and find themselves down one entering the second quarter.
 
UCO began to pull away on a 8-2 spurt (27-18) until a Buerge steal, a straight line to the bucket, and two free throws brought the Lions within five at the break.
 
The momentum carried over into the third where Southern scored the first five points of the second half to get to one point away and eventually regained the lead to go up 34-33 with 6:51 in the third. The Bronchos responded with back-to-back 3-pointers and a layup to kick start a 16-2 run and hold a 12-point advantage after three quarters of play.

Southern battled back to cut the lead to ten, but that would be as close as it would get to end the fourth quarter with UCO coming out with the 10-point win.

Women's basketball will have a week to prepare before traveling to Pittsburg, Kansas to take on the Pittsburg State Gorillas next Saturday, Feb. 3 at 1:30 pm.