ST. LOUIS ­– The strong efforts from Missouri Baptist women's basketball against top-ranked teams paid off Tuesday as the Spartans snapped a six-game losing streak with a 70-40 victory over Hannibal-LaGrange University. This marks the first American Midwest Conference (AMC) win since November improving the Spartans to 3-8 in league play and 4-11 overall.
 
MBU jumped out to a 7-2 lead thanks to freshman forward Allison Meyer coming off the bench with four quick points. The Spartans ended the quarter with a 13-9 lead, but the second period is where they took off. They outscored the visiting Trojans 22-8 in the second quarter. One of the key factors throughout the opening half was consistent pressure from the MBU defense, which led to 12 turnovers and poor shooting for Hannibal-LaGrange – 6-for-23 (.261).
 
The Trojans came back from the break on a mission, scoring nine of their 15 points from beyond the arc. Despite a minor lapse in the stout defense, Missouri Baptist continued to keep its distance and prevented Hannibal from cutting into the lead. For the quarter, the Spartans shot 7-for-15 (.467) and edged the Trojans in the scoring column, 16-15.
 
Heading into the fourth, MBU led by 19 and had every intention of stretching that margin. The Spartan defense generated two blocks and four steals in the final quarter to limit the Trojans to just eight points. Meanwhile, the Spartan offense continued to find the basket with another 19 points on 9-of-19 (.473) shooting.
 
For the game, Missouri Baptist shot 30-of-66 (.455) from the field with 19 assists. Defensively, the Spartans finished with 14 steals, four blocks, a 52-24 advantage on the boards and limited Hannibal-LaGrange to 15-of-50 (.300) shooting.
 
Individually, senior guard Alissa Rowden led the team in scoring for the sixth time this season with 17 points. The Strafford, Mo. native was 5-of-10 from the floor, 1-of-2 from 3-point range and added four steals and two assists to the stat line. Joining Rowden in double figures was freshman Allison Meyer, who set new career bests in points (12), rebounds (7) and blocks (2).
 
With a significant lead down the stretch, two Spartans were able to make their season debuts including freshman Joelle Atkins and redshirt-freshman Ashton Pilz.
 
MBU will seek back-to-back wins for the first time this season when it welcomes St. Louis College of Pharmacy (5-12, 1-10 AMC) to the Petty Sports & Recreation Complex on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. With a win over STLCOP, the Spartans would also achieve their first series sweep of 2018-19.