Edmond, Okla. – The fourth ranked Missouri Southern women's basketball program rolled to a 72-61 win on the road against Central Oklahoma at Hamilton Field House to begin the week. 
 
The Lions (10-0, 3-0 MIAA) were led by Lacy Stokes with season highs in points with 27 and hauled in eight rebounds. Lacy would also lead the team with six assists and three steals as well. Kaitlin Hunnicutt posted a season-high 13 points shooting 3-of-4 from three and grabbed five rebounds, Kryslyn Jones had 12 points, four rebounds and three steals and Madi Stokes had 11 points shooting 5-of-7 from the field to go with six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Hailey Grant was the leading rebounder with nine in 11 minutes off the bench.
 
Central Oklahoma (4-3, 1-2 MIAA) was led by Alayzha Knapp with 13 points, Ginger Reece led the bench effort with nine points and had eight rebounds. Caley Young also had eight rebounds off the bench while Aliyah Llanusa had five assists and five points with Brooke Rayner coming away with six points and four assists. 
 
In the first quarter the Lions jumped out quick with a Lacy Stokes' jumper at 9:18 starting a 21-2 run capped off by a Jones layup with Lacy picking up her third assist of the quarter at 4:10, during the run UCO would call two timeouts the first at 7:22 with the Lions ahead 10-0 and the second following the layup from Jones. At that Broncho timeout with 4:09 left in the quarter the Lions were 8-of-10 from the field, 5-of-5 from three while grabbing six rebounds, dishing out six assists and having three steals and blocks while forcing five turnovers.
 
The second quarter began with a 6-0 run courtesy of Lacy Stokes in the first minute to stretch the lead out to 27-10. The Bronchos slowly chipped away at the lead before getting it to ten (34-24) but a 7-3 run by the Lions capped off by a Hunnicutt three from Amaya Johns made it 41-27 with 1:15 left in the half and propelled the team into a 11 point halftime lead (41-30). 
 
At the half the Lions were led by Lacy with 17 points, four assists, four rebounds and three steals while Jones and Hunnicutt each had eight points with two made threes. As a team Southern held the advantage in the half in points off turnovers 15-4, rebounds 20-17, assists 9-6, steals 6-2, points in the paint 14-12 and second chance points 3-0.
 
To begin the third quarter Central Oklahoma used a 10-4 run to make it 45-40 with 6:28 left in the quarter and was the closest to tying it up since the beginning of the game. Lacy would make a driving layup and a Hunnicutt three from Cameron Call made it 50-40 with 5:49 but a 7-0 run by the Bronchos cut the lead to three (50-47) with 2:43 left. Amaya Johns would respond to the Broncho run with a straight away three from Lacy for her fifth assist of the game at 2:31 and the Lions would cruise to a 54-49 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
 
The Bronchos used a 8-2 run capped off by a three at 5:22 to make it 59-57 in the fourth quarter and that would be the closest to tying or taking the lead the Bronchos would get as runs of 6-0 and 7-2 in the last five minutes by the Lions capped off a 72-61 win on the road. 
 
As a team the Lions held the advantage in field goal percentage (37.9-37.3), three pointers made (9-8), three point percentage (34.6-28.6), free throws made (13-9), rebounds (44-38), offensive rebounds (14-8), steals (10-8), points off turnovers (21-13), points in the paint (32-22), second chance points (10-9) and tied with UCO in assists (14-14) and forced 17 turnovers while leading for 39:18 of the game.
 
Individually, Layne Skiles moved past Jolea Apon (08-10) for sixth in career threes made and moved past Jacquie Rzeszut (01-03) and Destiny Cozart (18-20) for seventh in career threes attempted with her career total now 143-383 for 37.3 percent the ninth best among qualified shooters. Lacy Stokes became the 37^th Lion in program history to eclipse 750 career points and with her performance is now 35^th at 776, Lacy also moved past Nicole Heinz (95-97) for 13^th in career steals with 128 now and moved past Melissa Grider (93-96) and Mary Carter (77-81) for 12^th in program history for career assists with 236. Madi Stokes moved past Vonny Wilson (02-05), Wyketha Harrell (01-04) and Trish Wilson (85-89) for 31^st in career scoring with 789 points currently.
 
Up next for the Lions is Newman to end the weekend on Saturday at 1:30pm inside Fugate Gymnasium in what will be the last road game of the 2022 calendar year.
 

The Missouri Southern women's basketball season is presented by People's Bank of Seneca, a proud supporter of Lion Athletics.