Warrensburg, Mo. – The Missouri Southern women's basketball team came away victorious from the Multipurpose Building on the campus of Central Missouri this afternoon, winning 66-61 to extend their win streak to eight games. 
 
The Lions (15-5, 12-3 MIAA) were led by Lacy Stokes with 25 points shooting 10-od-21 from the field, 2-of-4 from three and 3-of-5 from free throws while adding six assists, six rebounds, five steals and a block while playing the full 40 minutes in a game for the first time in her career. Lacy is tied with Jayme Callahan for the second most steals by a freshman in school history with 68 and is now fourth in assists by a freshman with 118. This was also her sixth game with five or more steals this season.
 
Amaya Johns scored 16 points from the bench shooting 6-of-10 from the field, a career-high 4-of-5 from three and collected four rebounds. Layne Skiles had eight points going 2-of-4 from three and added two assists as well. 
 
Central Missouri (15-8, 11-5 MIAA) was led by Olivia Nelson with 20 points and five assists. Nija Collier had a double-double of 14 points and 15 rebounds while blocking six shots and Brooke Littrell added a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds.
 
Like they have done for most of the season the Lions got on the board first and went on a run in the first few minutes of the game, with Lacy Stokes going on a 5-2 run to take the early lead. The first quarter opened up thanks to an 11-0 run by Southern with Kaitlin Hunnicutt, Johns and Skiles connecting on three's assisted by Lacy Stokes, making it 16-5 in favor of the Lions with 2:54 left in the first quarter.
 
The Jennies began the second quarter on an 7-2 run capped off by an Olivia Nelson layup with 6:55 left. Central Missouri finished the last four minutes of the first half with an 9-2 run to head into half down four (31-27), with the Lions forcing 11 turnovers and scoring nine points off them.
 
Southern had its lead down to three before going on an 7-0 run capped off by a Johns three with Skiles picking up the assist with 4:48 making it a ten point lead 43-33. Heading into the fourth quarter the Lions had built up a nine point lead 51-42 and were on a 5-1 run over the last minute of the third quarter.
 
Back-to-back three's by Central Missouri cut the lead down to three before Lacy Stokes made a jumper with 8:36 pushed the lead back up to five (53-48). The Jennies got to within three again following a Littrell layup before a 5-0 run by the Lions pushed the lead to eight (60-52) with a little over five minutes left in regulation.
 
A 6-2 run by the Jennies cut the Lion lead to four (62-58) with 2:58 left before a Lacy Stokes jumper pushed the lead up to six with the Jennies unable to reach it. The game was sealed thanks to a steal and score by Lacy with 14 seconds left to ensure the Lions came away with their first victory in Warrensburg since Feb. 20, 2016 and snapped a ten game losing streak against the Jennies.
 
As a team the Lions had a better field goal percentage than the Central Missouri (43.1-37.7), more three's (11-7), steals (7-4), bench points (21-3), points off turnovers (11-6), points in the paint (24-18), second chance points (5-3) and forced 17 turnovers.
 
Up next for the Lions is Lincoln in Jefferson City to begin a busy three game week on Monday. Tip-off from Jason Gym is set for 5:30pm.