ST. LOUIS – The momentum continues to build for the Missouri Baptist University women's basketball program as it won with authority on Wednesday in the 2021 AMC Women's Basketball Championship Quarterfinals defeating No. 5-seed Harris-Stowe State University, 84-42. MBU improved to 17-5 on the year, while HSSU's season comes to a close with a final record of 5-10 and 5-6 in the AMC.
 
MBU's win sets the stage for a marquee matchup in Batesville, Ark. on Friday with No. 1-seed and 18th-ranked Lyon College hosting the Spartans in the AMC Semifinals. Wednesday's runaway victory serves as the Spartans' first win in the AMC Women's Basketball Tournament since 2013-14, while the trip to Arkansas on Friday will be MBU's first semifinal appearance since the 2010-11 season.
 
Missouri Baptist couldn't have asked for a better start opening the scoring with a Tionne Taylor triple and jumping out to an early 9-2 advantage. Radiating confidence and energy, the Spartans led from start to finish and never missed a beat in large part due to the defense. Limiting the visitors to one made field goal in their first 8 attempts was just the beginning for an entire game of struggles offensively for the Hornets.
 
Heading into halftime, MBU stretched its lead to 20 with Harris-Stowe State trailing, 37-17. Holding true to regular-season form, Missouri Baptist did its most damage in the third quarter outscoring the Hornets 25-12.
 
Overall, MBU's stout defense held the Hornets to a hair over 20% shooting for the night and forced 20 HSSU turnovers. Although the Spartans weren't far behind in the turnover column (18), the biggest difference maker was what they did with their turnovers vs. Harris-Stowe. MBU converted its takeaways into 35 points off turnovers, while the Hornets translated MBU's 18 turnovers into just 5 points.
 
Following the 110-107 triple overtime loss at home to Williams Baptist on Feb. 9, the Missouri Baptist defense has posed problem after problem for opposing teams. During the Spartans' current seven-game winning streak, opposing offenses are averaging just 42.85 points per game. With the defense locked in, MBU's offense has also shouldered a heavy load posting 78.71 points per game for an impressive average margin of victory of 35.8 points.
 
The Spartans out-rebounded Harris-Stowe, 52-36, held a 15-3 advantage in assists, 7-1 advantage in blocks and 17-9 advantage in steals.
 
Junior guard Tionne Taylor led all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting and also swiped a career-high 6 steals. Sophomore Alexis Allstun set a new career mark in blocks with 6 to go along with her near double-double of 11 points and 9 boards. Other career bests included Kamryn Mack with a career-high 4 steals and Kim Shaw with a career-high 9 defensive rebounds.
 
Joining Tionne Taylor and Alexis Allstun in double figures was Taylor Norris (15 PTS, 6-14 FG, 3 AST, 2 STL) and Lauren Ebert (12 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 2 STL). Two others in Kamryn Mack and Rose Wassef were on the verge of double digits with 8 points apiece.