BATESVILLE, Ark. – The storybook season for Missouri Baptist Women's Basketball likely came to an end Friday in the AMC Championship Semifinals following a 66-59 loss at No. 1 seeded Lyon College. In their first semifinal appearance since 2010-11, the Spartans outscored the AMC regular-season champs by 10 in the second half, but it wasn't enough to successfully pull off an upset.  
 
No. 4-seeded Missouri Baptist entered Friday's matchup riding a seven-game winning streak where opponents averaged just 42.8 points per game. Unfortunately for the Spartans, 18^th-ranked Lyon nearly matched that scoring average in the first half alone and provided the needed cushion for offsetting MBU's comeback effort.  
 
With the win, Lyon (12-1) advances to the AMC Championship game on Monday against No. 2 seed Columbia College and will look to lock up both the regular-season and tournament titles. Missouri Baptist finishes the year at 17-6 overall, marking the fewest losses in a season (on record). In conference play, the Spartans went 12-3, tying a program record for most AMC wins in a season.
 
Up until the fourth quarter when the Spartans shot 11-for-17 from the floor and 4-of-8 from three, it had been an off night shooting inside of Becknell Gymnasium. During Periods 1-3, MBU totaled just nine made field goals at a 22.5% clip.
 
Despite the shooting woes, Missouri Baptist stayed within reach and trailed by just five after the first quarter. Lyon's second-quarter surge is what ultimately sunk the Spartans on Friday as the Scots shot 64% from the field and increased their lead to 17 before the break. Lyon led 40-23 at the half.
 
Both defenses showed out in the third quarter as the Scots yielded just two made field goals on offense and shot a meager 12.5% (2-for-16). Similarly, MBU shot 3-of-15 (.200) and was unable to make much of a dent in the deficit.
 
Down by 20 with just under five minutes to go in the contest, the Spartans gave it one last push and made the Scots work for their win. Taylor Norris, who had been rather quiet in the first three quarters, kicked off a 13-0 run with a three and helped MBU pull within single digits. The Spartans narrowed the Scots' lead to seven with 56 seconds remaining (60-53), but that was a close as they would get.
 
MBU had three players score in double figures including Norris with a team-high 17 points (6-of-14 FG, 2-of-5 3FG), Lauren Ebert with 15 (5-of-8 FG, 3-of-5 3FG) and Kim Shaw with 13 (5-of-11 FG, 3-of-7 3FG). The rest of the team combined to shoot 4-for-24 from the field at a 16.6% clip and 1-for-12 (.083) from 3-point range.
 
Stay tuned into MBUSpartans.com and amcsportsonline.com on Monday evening (immediately following the championship game) for an announcement of the AMC's All-Conference and specialty awards.