ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist University women's basketball team used a monster third quarter to pull away from Hannibal-LaGrange University in an 83-58 Senior Day triumph on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans outscored the visitors by 21 points in the pivotal period and also got a big boost from 10 Trojan turnovers in the quarter.
 
Saturday's win over HLGU paired with a St. Louis College of Pharmacy win in Conway, Arkansas helped Missouri Baptist leapfrog Central Baptist in the final standings and grab the No. 7 seed for next week's American Midwest Conference (AMC) Championship. The Spartans will make a return trip to Henderson, Tennessee on Thursday, March 5 to go to battle with AMC No. 2 seed and 14^th-ranked Freed-Hardeman University.
 
MBU finishes the regular season with an overall record of 12-16 and 12-12 mark in the league play. It is just the fourth time in 10 years that the MBU women's basketball program has sported an AMC record of .500 or better.
 
The first half was a tale of two quarters. Missouri Baptist jumped out to a 10-2 advantage out of the gate and went up by as much as 11 before it was Hannibal's turn. The Trojans tied the ballgame at 23 apiece at the 7:21 mark in the second quarter. Several Spartans came off the bench to provide a spark on offense including Nicole Griesenauer, Lauren Ebert and Kimberley Shaw. Griesenauer broke the 23-23 tie and scored two more late in the quarter, Ebert pickpocketed HLGU's Jade Scroggins and converted her and-1 opportunity off of a fast-break layup, and Shaw knocked down back-to-back triples to aid in MBU's eight-point lead at halftime.
 
After halftime is when Missouri Baptist made its move. The Spartan defense began to disrupt Hannibal-LaGrange in a way that they were not prepared for. A large chunk of MBU's 24 points off turnovers for the game came in the third quarter when the Spartans caused 10 HLGU miscues. In the last 3:23 of the quarter, Missouri Baptist went on a 14-0 run.
 
Seniors Megan Fassino and Jordan Wyatt held down the fort in the fourth quarter scoring 9 of the team's 12 points keeping enough distance between the Spartans and Trojans. Playing in her 100^th career game, Fassino finished her Senior Day outing with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. Wyatt made her 33^rd start as a Spartan and had a final stat line of 4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
 
Sophomore guard Tionne Taylor registered her 21^st game scoring in double figures with a game-high 18 points and 4 steals in 18 minutes of action. Freshmen Kaylynn Hayden and Lauren Ebert had equally impressive numbers in terms of efficiency as Hayden was 5-for-5 from the field with 12 points and 6 steals in just 8 minutes on the court, while Ebert was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and 1-for-1 from 3-point range for 8 points in just under 11 minutes of playing time.
 
As a team, the Spartans yielded 15 turnovers or fewer for the third consecutive game.