St. Joseph, Mo. – The Missouri Southern Women's Basketball team traveled to St. Joseph, Mo. to open their season at the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic against the Pioneers of Texas Woman's University. A second half surge maintained the game in reach, but the Pioneers would pull out the victory.
Missouri Southern (0-1) vs. Texas Woman's (1-0)
Quarter 1: Missouri Southern 14 | Texas Woman's 22
The Lions struck the scoreboard first with a three pointer from
Kaitlin Hunnicutt. After a Lions free throw and a Pioneers layup,
Mackenzie Hart had her first bucket as a Lion with a three pointer to advance the Lions' lead to 7-2. The Pioneers would return with a 14-2 run.
Kaitlin Hunnicutt would knock down her second three, but the Pioneers would return with a 6-2 run to close out the first quarter.
Quarter 2: Missouri Southern 25 | Texas Woman's 39
The Lions defense held the Pioneers scoreless through the first two minutes of the second quarter.
Mia Topping would begin the scoring with two free throws, but was quickly followed with a 7-0 Pioneer run. Last season's MIAA Freshman of the Year
Ryan Franklin would have her first points of the season with a free throw and a layup to counter a Pioneer layup in between. Another Hunnicutt three would bring the game to within double-digits with 3:00 remaining in the first half. The Pioneers would close the half on a 8-3 run.
Quarter 3: Missouri Southern 43 | Texas Woman's 51
The Lions opened the second half with a 5-0 run from a
Ryan Franklin layup and a
Kaitlin Hunnicutt layup and free throw. After a Pioneer layup, Franklin would begin another Lion run as her layup was followed with a
Morgan Meyers three and two free throws from
Mackenzie Hart. Both teams traded baskets throughout the rest of the third quarter as the Lions would narrow the deficit to eight points with one quarter remaining.
Quarter 4: Missouri Southern 67 | Texas Woman's 72
Both teams traded a three pointer to open the final quarter. The Lions defense only allowed two points from the Pioneers over the following two minutes. A Pioneers layup was quickly answered with five points from
Morgan Meyers.
Kaitlin Hunnicutt and
Ryan Franklin added a layup each to bring the deficit to only five points with 3:56 remaining. Both teams would trade runs until the final buzzer ended the game in favor of the Pioneers.
Missouri Southern Leaders:
Points: Kaitlin Hunnicutt - 19
Rebounds: Ryan Franklin - 8
Assists: Kaitlin Hunnicutt,
Morgan Meyers,
Mackenzie Hart - 2
Steals: Kaitlin Hunnicutt - 3
Blocks: n/a
Up Next:
Women's Basketball will be back in action Saturday, November 3, at 3:30 PM to compete in their final game at the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in St. Joseph, Mo. against Ashland University in the Civic Arena.
-Lions-
