DES MOINES, Iowa – With a sour taste lingering from last year's 53-point loss to William Penn University in the Grand View Classic, Missouri Baptist women's basketball sported a squad with eight newcomers and produced a completely different result. While MBU dropped its season opener to No. 25-ranked William Penn on Friday, 73-62, the Spartans flashed their potential and did so for the entire contest.
 
A trio of newcomers paced the new-look Spartans on offense against the Statesmen, who moved to 2-0 in the early season. Freshmen Taylor Norris and Alexis Allstun, and McKendree University transfer Tionne Taylor all scored in double figures and made up 59% of the Spartans' scoring.
 
Missouri Baptist came out with vengeance in the opening quarter and prevented the 25^th-ranked Statesmen from gaining the lead at any point in the first 10 minutes. The trio of Allstun, Taylor and Norris set the tone in the first stanza combining for 16 of MBU's 18 points to give the Spartans an 18-14 after one.
 
It wasn't until the 7:11 mark in the second quarter that William Penn took its first lead of the game. After scoring in the first minute, a 3 and ½ minute drought occurred for the Spartans and allowed the Statesmen to bump its lead to five. As the half came to a close, the Spartans recovered and took the lead back for a short time thanks to a Kimberley Shaw 3-pointer. WPU scored with time expiring to head into halftime with the game knotted at 32-all.
 
Multiple turnovers led to an early deficit for MBU coming out of the break. Yet, the resilient Spartans, never let the Top 25 team out of sight. MoBap kept William Penn within 6 throughout the entire quarter and evened the ballgame at 48-48 off a Taylor Norris two with 13 seconds remaining. Once again, the Statesmen got a bucket before the quarter ended to swing the momentum in their favor heading into the final stretch.
 
MBU made it a one-possession game on multiple occasions, but couldn't reclaim the lead that they held early in the contest. It wasn't until the final two minutes that William Penn began to break away and extend its lead into double digits.
 
This year's rematch in the GVU Classic was a far cry from last year's 88-35 loss. On the night, the Spartans shot 44.4 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from 3-point range, compared to 25 and 20 in 2018.
 
In a game-high 36 minutes, freshman Taylor Norris shot 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point land. The Salem, Mo. guard protected the ball well with a 4-1 assist/turnover ratio to go along with a pair of steals. Fellow freshman Alexis Allstun went 6-of-8 for 12 points and a team-high 5 rebounds.
 
Second-year head coach Samuel Pearson trotted a starting lineup with just one returner in senior Jordan Wyatt, along with Norris, Allstun, Tionne Taylor and Kimberley Shaw. Taylor hit double figures in scoring with 11, while Shaw was efficient while on the court with 6 points (2-of-3), 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.