By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri Western women's basketball team left little doubt that they would win Saturday shortly after the game tipped off.
The Griffons (11-4, 5-2 MIAA) rocketed off to a 12-0 start, led 25-10 at the end of the first quarter and rolled to a 96-51 win over Rogers State on Saturday afternoon at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
Missouri Western shot 53 percent from the field, and made 12-of-31 three-point attempts. The Griffons also shared the ball well, doling out 31 assists.
Defensively, Missouri Western held Rogers State (3-9 overall, 1-5 MIAA) to 31 percent shooting from the field, and turned the Hillcats over 31 times.
Junior Brionna Budgets led four Griffons in double figures with 21 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three. Sophomore Abby Bala scored a career-high 17 points on a career-best four made three-pointers.
Junior Connie Clarke had 10 points and eight rebounds . Junior Trinity Knapp had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists. In all, 13 Griffons played and 12 of them scored.
Missouri Western has now won four in a row and improved to 4-0 all time against Rogers State.
MWSU men rally, fall short in final seconds to Rogers State
The Missouri Western men's basketball team got down 20-9 in the first half and trailed 36-29 at halftime.
The Griffons led 44-42 with 12:35 remaining, but fell behind 54-46 with 7:23 to go. Missouri Western would again rally, tying the game at 58 with a Taye Fields three-pointer with 1:40 to go.
Rogers State, however, reclaimed the lead with 1:08 remaining and never trailed again, outlasting the Griffons 62-61 in a nail biter on Saturday at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
The Griffons (7-4, 3-2 MIAA) had the ball down a point with just over nine seconds to go. Julius Dixon had a look at what would have been a game-winning three inside the final five seconds, but it was off the mark, and Western had no look at a put-back off the miss.
Junior Will Eames led Missouri Western with a game-high 19 points. He also had eight rebounds and four assists. Dixon finished with 16 points and five boards.
Junior Reese Glover had 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting from deep.
Joey Saracco led Rogers State with 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. He also had seven rebounds.
Sherwyn Devonish-Prince Jr. had 13 for the Hillcats, while Chris Whitaker had 10.
The Hillcats (8-4, 4-2 MIAA) shot 49.1 percent from the field, while Missouri Western shot 38.9 percent. The Griffons had 16 turnovers, which led to 18 points for the Hillcats.
Both the Missouri Western men and women stay home on Tuesday, January 2 to host Northeastern State. The women tip at 4 and the men at 6 p.m. Both games will be on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com).
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