ST. LOUIS – [Box Score] The Missouri Baptist women's basketball season came to a close tonight, as the Spartans fell to Freed-Hardeman, 86-55, in the American Midwest Conference Tournament Quarterfinals.
Missouri Baptist (12-20) shot 38 percent from the floor, hitting 18-of-47, and made 2-of-4 from three-point territory. The Spartans made 17-of-22 from the free throw line.
No. 2 Freed-Hardeman (30-1) shot an impressive 41 percent from the floor, making 31-of-75 shots. The Lady Lions won the rebounding battle, 41-33, despite trailing at the half in the statistic.
Kristyne Smyth, Leslie Damper, Kyesha Quarterman, and Esther Brown played their last game donning the navy and white uniform.
Smyth led the Spartans with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, and sank all five free throw shots. She pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
Taylor Klingelhoefer made 2-of-5 shots from the floor, 1-of-1 from deep range, and hit 8-of-10 from the charity stripe to score 13 points on the night. She also had six rebounds to co-lead MBU.
In the first half, the Lady Lions jumped out to a 10-0 lead over the first 3:30 of play.
The Spartans were able to cut the deficit to single-digits multiple times over the course of the half, but Freed-Hardeman would immediately answer by scoring on the next possession.
Taylor Klingelhoefer drained a three-pointer with seven seconds left in the half to cut the deficit to 46-26, but the Lady Lions would head into the halftime break with a 20-point lead.
Missouri Baptist struggled offensively in the half, making just 9-of-28 shots from the field. The Spartans were able to make 6-of-7 from the free throw line and won the rebounding battle, 19-18.
Freed-Hardeman powered their way to 16-of-34 shooting from the floor, and made 6-of-15 from three-point range.
Angela Talley and Taylor Klingelhoefer led the Spartans with five points at the break. Talley hit 2-of-4 from the floor, while Klingelhoefer made just 1-of-4 from the field, but did make her lone three-point shot. She made both free throw attempts and pulled down three rebounds. Jasmine Jackson led the Spartans with four rebounds over the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, Freed-Hardeman outscored the Spartans 24-9 over the first eight minutes of play, which propelled the Lady Lions to a 70-35 lead.
The Spartans were unable to close the gap, as they were outscored 40-29 in the half.
Freed-Hardeman advanced to the AMC Tournament Semifinals with the victory, but all is not lost for the Spartans, who have seven players who played a lot of minutes tonight returning next season.
