For the second straight game, the Missouri Baptist University women's basketball team went down-to-the-wire and came up short against another team ranked in the top half of the American Midwest Conference standings. In Saturday's AMC Game of the Week, the Spartans were edged by Central Baptist College, 76-71.
 
Since the Mustangs joined the AMC in 2015-16, Missouri Baptist is now 1-3 overall when playing CBC on the road at A.R. Reddin Fieldhouse in Conway, Ark. The vastly-improved Central Baptist squad improved to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in league play. To contrast, last year, the Mustangs were 11-18 and 7-17 in the AMC.
 
The two evenly-matched teams traded the lead six times in the first quarter. For MBU, Kadesha Cooper and Rose Wassef tag-teamed for 10 points in the opening period and had the Spartans right on the heels of the Mustangs. Down 18-17 after one, Missouri Baptist continued to keep it close, tying it early on and keeping it within two possessions going into halftime.
 
The Spartans held the home team to a 1-for-10 clip from 3-point range, but still trailed the Mustangs at the break, 35-30.
 
Central Baptist kept its distance in the third quarter and extended its lead to nine at one point, but the Spartan defense held its ground and prevented CBC from reaching a double-digit margin. With a 5-0 run to end the quarter, Missouri Baptist narrowed the deficit to three points at 48-45.
 
A minute into the fourth quarter, the Spartans were able to tie the game once more, but were never able to regain the lead with Central Baptist providing an answer for each push. Despite Missouri Baptist outshooting the Mustangs in the second half – .517 to .433 – the Mustangs found a way to offset the Spartans' hot shooting. On the day, CBC tripled the amount of free throws made by MBU to fend off the Spartans.
 
Leading the way for Missouri Baptist (3-7, 2-4 AMC) was senior Kadesha Cooper, who finished with a stat line of 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting and 7 rebounds. Not far behind Cooper was sophomore Rose Wassef, who also came off the bench for the Spartans. Wassef notched 16 points and was an impressive 4-of-6 (.666) from long range. Joining those two in double figures was guard Caroline Rogers with 11 points.  Point guard Izzy Farrell registered a game-high six assists to go along with six points and two steals.
 
Next up for the Spartans is another weekend trip to Arkansas where they'll face No. 19-ranked Lyon College on Dec. 15 at 1 p.m.