Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern women's basketball program picked up the win 69-50 over Washburn this evening inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.

 

The Lions (9-5, 6-3 MIAA) were paced by true freshman guard Lacy Stokes' 18 points going 8-of-12 from the charity stripe, while filling out the rest of the stat sheet with seven assists, five rebounds and five steals. This was Lacy's fourth game this season with 5 or more steals in a game. Junior guard/forward Amaya Johns added 15 points going 6-of-10 from the field, 2-of-3 from three.

 

Redshirt freshman guard/forward Hailey Grant had a career night scoring 12 points going 3-of-4 from three and pulling down 13 rebounds. Junior guard/forward Layne Skiles rounded out the double digit scorers for the Lions with 10 points and had seven rebounds. Graduate guard Brooke Stauffer provided a season-high six assists tying a career-high while also coming away with two steals.

 

Washburn (5-8, 3-4 MIAA) had its four game winning streak snap and was led by Hunter Bentley with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Shaw Sanchez finished with eight points off the bench and provided a game-high two assists. Macy Doebele finished with six points and eight rebounds as well for the Ichabods.

 

An increasingly common occurrence happened to begin the game as a Stokes-to-Stokes connection occurred giving the Lions an early lead on the first possesion with Lacy assisting Madi for the first basket of the night. An 8-0 run over the last five minutes of the first quarter opened up a 15-6 lead with the Lions forcing six turnovers in the period, getting five points off them.
 
Washburn started the second quarter on a 4-0 run closing the Lion lead to five (15-10) before Southern responded with a 7-0 run capped by a Grant layup assisted by Lacy Stokes her four of the game with 5:49 left in the first half. The Ichabods' closed out the half on a 5-2 run in the last minute of the half to head into the break down 28-19.
 
In the second half both teams traded buckets before the Lions had a 11-2 run making it a 16 point lead 44-28 with 27 seconds left following a Lacy Stokes to Madi Stokes connection. Southern began the scoring in the fourth quarter with a trio of free throws followed by 9-4 run by Washburn cutting the deficit to 22 (51-39). 
 
Lacy Stokes had a hand in six points of an 8-3 run by the Lions in the middle of the fourth quarter before a 4-1 run by the Ichabods' kept the game within 14 points (60-46) with 2:22 remaining. A quick 6-2 run by the Lions sealed the deal preventing a Washburn comeback before the final buzzer sounded coming away winners 69-50.
 
As a team the Lions held the advantage in field goal percentage (42.9–30.6), three's made (9-4), free throws made (12-8), assists (17-4), steals (9-2), forced 18 Washburn turnovers, had more bench points (30-18), points off turnovers (17-9), in the paint (20-16) and came away with the largest margin of victory in the series since 1986 and held the Ichabods' to the third fewest points scored in the series.
 
Up next will be Emporia State to close out the week on Saturday, tip-off from the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center is set for 1:30 pm.