ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist University women's basketball team got back to its winning way on Thursday with a convincing 63-32 road win at University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy. In addition to holding the Eutectics to a season low and 33 points under their average, Missouri Baptist played a major part in UHSP's shooting woes – 15% on the night – and a scoreless third quarter.
 
Thursday's defensive effort marks the seventh time dating back to 2004-05 that MBU has held Health Sciences & Pharmacy under 40 points. It was also the fewest points allowed by an MBU team since Feb. 22, 2018 when the Spartans yielded a record-low 26 points to Hannibal-LaGrange.
 
Inching closer to a top-four seed for the AMC Tournament, the Spartans improved to 11-5 overall and 7-3 in conference, while UHSP has lost three in a row and sit at 9-9, 5-8 AMC.
 
MoBap grabbed control of the game in the first period with an 8-0 run and never turned back. With another sizable scoring spree in the second and UHSP's offense sputtering, the Spartans stretched their lead to double digits and went into halftime ahead, 35-20.
 
After hitting seven 3s in the first half and shooting 50% from long range, the misses started to pile up for the Spartans. Offensively, Missouri Baptist came out flat after halftime and didn't score its first bucket until the 4:32 mark. Fortunately for the Spartans, UHSP had it much worse. The Eutectics, who seemed lost offensively without the NAIA's leading scorer – Grace Beyer (29.2 ppg) – in the lineup, went 0-for-15 from the floor and 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the third quarter.
 
In total, Health Sciences & Pharmacy went 13 minutes and 15 seconds without scoring a single point. By the end of UHSP's coldspell, the Spartans had upped their lead to 26 and pushed it above 30 by game's end.
 
On the evening, UHSP was limited to just nine made field goals on 62 attempts (.145) and a paltry 3-for-30 clip (.100) from beyond the arc. The Spartans, on the other hand, shot 40% from the field, hit nine 3s and went 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. MBU out-rebounded the Eutectics 46 to 34 and recorded a season-high nine blocks.
 
Leading the way offensively for the Spartans was sophomore guard Lauren Ebert, who has scored 10+ points in each of the last four games. Ebert shot 5-for-9 from the field and 50% from long range with a game-high three triples and 13 points. Fellow sophomore Alexis Allstun joined Ebert in double figures with a final stat line of 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
 
Several other Spartans had productive outings including Joelle Atkins with 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks, Kamryn Mack with career highs in points (6) and assists (5) in addition to 4 rebounds, and Sara Hermosa with 6 points and 4 rebounds off the bench, and Vinnié Winters with a season-high 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 10 minutes of action.
 
Next up for the Spartans is a rescheduled away game with Hannibal-LaGrange on Friday.