BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Career nights for both Le'Ondra Wilson and Caroline Rogers were not enough to power the Missouri Baptist women's basketball team to victory on Thursday as the Spartans fell to Lindenwood University-Belleville, 70-60.
 
Missouri Baptist (6-17, 5-14 AMC) got off to a fast start grabbing a six-point lead midway through the first quarter. Lindenwood-Belleville followed with a run of its own and quickly erased any positive momentum that the Spartans had fashioned. The Lynx closed out the quarter on a 14-4 run and led 19-15.  
 
Sophomore guard Caroline Rogers stepped up in a big way in the second quarter scoring nearly half of MBU's points. The Grays Summit, Mo. native notched 8 points, 2 rebounds and 1 steal in the period and kept the Spartans within reach of the home team. At halftime, the Spartans trailed 40-32.
 
Lindenwood-Belleville gradually increased its lead in the third quarter to 15, which was enough to stave off Missouri Baptist's comeback efforts in the final quarter.
 
With less than three minutes remaining in the game, the Spartans brought the game back into single-digit territory thanks to back-to-back buckets by Le'Ondra Wilson. Unfortunately, there were no late-game heroics as Lindenwood-Belleville held off the Spartans for their 11^th AMC win of the year. The Lynx improved to 11-14, 11-8 AMC.
 
Brianna Mueller, the AMC's leading scorer (20.2 ppg) was the driving force for the Lynx with a game-high 25 points. Mueller was 7-for-11 from the field, made her only 3-point attempt and went 10-of-11 from the free-throw line. The rest of LU-B was 16-for-40 and shot just 50 percent at the free-throw line.
 
Le'Ondra Wilson, who was in her first game back following an injury, proved to be extremely effective offensively. Wilson scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting with 13 of them coming in the second half. The senior was also a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range, which also served as a career high in 3-point field goals made.
 
Caroline Rogers reached double figures for the first time in her career with an 11-point effort in 18 minutes of action. She achieved that feat shooting 4-of-7 from the field and 60 percent from long range (3-for-5). Joining Wilson and Rogers in double digits was Kadesha Cooper, who recorded 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
 
Other leaders on the night included Joelle Atkins with 10 rebounds (7 offensive, 3 defensive) and Alissa Rowden with 5 assists.
 
Looking for their first series sweep of the year, the Spartans return home on Saturday to host Stephens College at 1 p.m. Please note that the time has changed from 3 p.m. to 1 p.m.