ST. LOUIS – Following her milestone of eclipsing 1,000 career points and earning AMC Women's Basketball Player of the Week,
Tionne Taylor has continued to keep her game in top form and Saturday was no different. The Spartan senior registered a new career high in scoring as Missouri Baptist (11-10, 8-3 AMC) pulled out a close win against Harris-Stowe State (4-12, 2-9 AMC) and continued its win streak.
Taylor was honored in a ceremonial presentation before the game to celebrate her surpassing the thousand-point milestone, but Taylor continued to celebrate following tip-off by finding the bottom of the net repeatedly. The O'Fallon native was clinical in the first, scoring a total of 22 points in just 16 minutes. In total, Taylor let rain in 39 points on 9-of-22 (.409) shooting, besting her previous career game high by one, and also tallying four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
The game was a tight one from the jump. The Hornets turned things on offensively in the second quarter and had taken a slight three-point lead at halftime. The visitor's do-it-all guard Deyana Dodd contributed the second highest total among scorers with 15 points and had four rebounds and four steals to boot.
Despite fouling out, junior
Lauren Ebert was a force from three, hitting on 3-of-6 and getting 11 points and six boards. The rebound crown would go to
Joelle Atkins, who didn't score but made her presence felt by getting 11 off the glass. Graduate senior
Rose Wassef would also kick in seven points and five rebounds of her own.
Mobap managed to cut the lead down to one in a drawn out third quarter that was mired by a total of 15 fouls. The end of the game became somewhat a war of attrition, with both teams struggling to navigate through foul trouble. After finally retaking the lead early in the fourth on a Taylor layup with 8:48 remaining, the Spartans managed to jump ahead to a six-point edge on successive baskets from Ebert and a Taylor three-pointer. MBU never led by less than four the rest of the way to close out its fifth win in a row.
Missouri Baptist spends all of next week at home in what should prove to be its most crucial in a push for a high seed in the end-of-season conference tournament. The Spartans will welcome the two teams currently tied for first in the AMC to the Carl & Deloris Petty SRC, starting with Lyon College on Thursday, Feb. 3rd at 5:30 PM. Following the game with the Scots will be a matchup with rival Columbia College on Saturday, Feb. 5th at 1:00 PM.
