Joplin, Mo. – The third ranked Missouri Southern women's basketball program fell today with a comeback attempt falling just short 73-71 to the 17th ranked Central Missouri Jennies today inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center as
Lacy Stokes scored a season-high 31 points.
Southern (11-1, 4-1 MIAA) was led by
Lacy Stokes with 31 points going 5-of-9 from three and 4-of-4 from free throws to go with six rebounds and six assists.
Amaya Johns led the bench effort with 15 points while grabbing six rebounds and tied a career-high with three assists.
Central Missouri (7-0, 4-0 MIAA) was led by Brooke Littrell with 24 points and 16 rebounds, Ashley Tull was the other Jennie to reach double figures going for 13 points and hauling in six rebounds.
In the first quarter the Lions got out to a 6-2 start after a
Kaitlin Hunnicutt layup from
Lacy Stokes with 8:39 left, Central Missouri would respond with a 7-3 run to tie it up 9-9 with 4:34 left in the quarter and set the stage for a back and forth game. In the last four minutes of the first quarter the teams tied it up three times with a pair of
Mia Topping free throws with 22 seconds left ending the scoring in the quarter at 15-15.
To begin the second quarter the Lions as part of a 8-2 run sunk back-to-back threes by Lacy and
Layne Skiles to make it 23-19 in favor of the Lions with 6:46 left in the first half. Central Missouri responded with a 17-2 run topped off by a jumper with five seconds left in the half but that was too much for
Lacy Stokes who drained a 3 quarters shot to end the half making it 36-28 Jennies.
The third quarter saw the Lions use a 5-2 run in the first couple minutes to edge the deficit to five (38-33), but the Jennies responded with a 12-4 run to make it 50-37 with 2:31 left in the third quarter. Southern would close the gap down to ten following a pair of
Hailey Grant free throws to send the teams into the fourth quarter at 54-44.
In the fourth quarter the Lions went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead down to four with 4:09 left following a Lacy and-one making it 59-55 and getting the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center crowd involved. The Jennies went on a 6-3 run to move the lead back up to seven but the Lions responded with a 10-4 run with under three minutes to go to make the lead one twice (67-66 & 69-68) and following a Skiles layup with Johns picking up the assist forced the Jennies into a timeout with 23 seconds left.
With fouls to give the Lions sent the Jennies to the free throw line four times in the last 18 seconds with the Jennies going 6-of-8 during their trips as a step back three by Lacy with 1.9 seconds left being the last points for the Lions during that time.
For the game the Lions held the advantage in threes made (11-2), three point percentage (39.3-15.4), free throw percentage (100.0-75.0), steals (6-4), blocks (6-4), bench points (19-10), fast break points (5-3), points off turnovers (7-6) and forced 10 turnovers, the game saw 10 ties the third time this season to eclipse double figures in ties in a game with the games against #23 Lubbock Christian (13) and Missouri Western (11) being the other two.
Following the conclusion of the game the Lions now have three active players with over 800 career points in
Layne Skiles (863),
Lacy Stokes (813) and
Madi Stokes (805) moving the trio into the top-32 in career scoring with Skiles 26th, Lacy 31st and Madi 32nd.
Amaya Johns would cross the 600 career point threshold becoming the 53rd Lion in program history and currently has 610 points. Additionally, Lacy has also moved past Linda Catillon (79-83) and is 11th for career assists with 249 just one away from tying LaDonna Wilson (83-87) and Aubrie Hallman (03-05) for 9th in program history.
The loss snaps a 19 game winning streak in the MIAA which is a program record and a 13 game home winning steak which was the second longest in program history.
Up next for the Lions will be Illinois Springfield on Dec. 30th with tip-off from the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center set for 5:30pm.
The Missouri Southern women's basketball season is presented by People's Bank of Seneca, a proud supporter of Lion Athletics.
