By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
JEFFERSON CITY, MO - The Missouri Western women's basketball team used a big second quarter to build a comfortable halftime lead and ultimately roll to a 90-51 win at Lincoln University Wednesday in Jefferson City.
Missouri Western (14-4, 9-3 MIAA) led 21-14 after the first quarter and buried the Blue Tigers in the second, outscoring them 28-10 in that period to go up 49-25 at intermission.
The Griffons shot the ball consistently well throughout, hitting 56.1% (37-of-66) from the field, including 9-of-20 from three. Missouri Western had 25 assists to just 12 turnovers and scored 29 fast break points.
The Griffons outscored the Blue Tigers in the paint by a whopping 50-16 margin.
Connie Clarke and Brionna Budgets led Missouri Western with 18 points each. Budgets was 4-of-9 from long range. Jayme Jackson added 12 points. Kassandra Caron and Tiani Ellison both came off the bench to score 10.
Missouri Western, once again, played lockdown defense, holding Lincoln (6-12, 2-10 MIAA) to just 32.1% shooting (17-of-53) overall and a 3-of-18 mark from three.
The Griffons also forced 24 turnovers by the Blue Tigers, turning those giveaways into 33 points.
Missouri Western has won four straight games and nine of their last 10 overall. The Griffons have also won each of the last 10 meetings against Lincoln.
Wednesday marked the final regular season game against Lincoln as MIAA foes. The Blue Tigers are joining the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the upcoming school year.
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MWSU men fall behind in second half, see win streak end at Lincoln
Missouri Western was in a back-and-forth battle at Lincoln in the first half Wednesday.
Heck, the Griffons even had a lead for about eight minutes.
The Griffons got down by five points at halftime, and then by 10 with 12:37 to go. The deficit inflated to 17 points with three minutes left ,and Missouri Western fell at Lincoln, 76-66, on Wednesday at Jason Gym.
The Griffons (14-4, 8-4 MIAA), ranked No. 22 in this week's coaches' poll, saw a six-game winning streak come to an end, as they played their first game in Jefferson City since December 2021.
The first half featured seven ties and five lead changes, but Lincoln held Missouri Western without a made field goal for the final 4:57 of the first half, allowing the Blue Tigers to take a 32-27 lead at the break.
Missouri Western opened the second half on a 5-0 run to tie the game at 32-32 with 18:04 to go, but the Griffons never tasted a lead in the last 20 minutes.
The Griffons had a 4.5 minute scoring drought in the latter portion of the second half as well, allowing Lincoln to go up 59-45 with 7:02 remaining.
Lincoln (12-6, 7-5) shot 60.9% in the second half and only turned the ball over nine times. Eleven turnovers by the Griffons led to 17 points for the Blue Tigers.
Lincoln also outscored Missouri Western in the paint, 36-26.
Missouri Western missed nine free throws (16-of-25) in the loss. The Griffons shot 40.4% (21-of-52) on the night, hitting on 8-of-21 attempts from three.
JaRon Thames had a game-high 19 points to lead Missouri Western. Kiani Saxon added 12, while Zion Swader had 11.
Elijah Farr led four Blue Tigers in double figures with 18 points.
Both Missouri Western teams are on the road to face Central Missouri on Saturday. The women's game starts at 1 p.m., the men's game follows at 3. Both games are on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com, KFEQ app).
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