ST. LOUIS – For the sixth game in a row, MBU women's basketball came out the victor. It was a battle throughout with an American Midwest Conference (AMC) foe the Spartans had never played giving them a run for their money on Saturday afternoon, but MoBap completed the first half of its AMC schedule with the 72-64 win and has now just one loss in league play.
Missouri Baptist (13-3, 9-1 in AMC) faced off with Cottey College (7-10, 3-7 in AMC) for the first time in program history. The AMC-newcomers would hang tough, leading only once in the first quarter and never trailing by more than 8, until late in the game. Cottey got within three with less than 90 seconds in regulation as consistency at the free throw line (29-of-42, 69.0 percent) and 30 points from senior
Tionne Taylor put the game out of reach for the Comets.
Taylor again was the leading scorer for MBU, recording a new season high in the process. The recently minted all-time scoring leader in MBU women's basketball program history shot 5-of-17, but did most of her heavy lifting getting the freebies. The O'Fallon, Mo., product had 18 points from the free throw line.
The Spartans got 13 points apiece from junior
Bryce Dowell and senior
Alexis Allstun. Only six MBU players managed to score, as just 16 bench points were scored by the visitors. The Comets outrebounded Missouri Baptist 52-48, but taking care of the basketball helped MBU grind out the close game. MoBap had a season low in team turnovers (10), their fourth game in a row with less than 20 giveaways.
Taking stock at the midway point of the conference slate, MBU is averaging 72.6 points a game, good for third in the AMC, and is shooting 43.6 percent from the field from the first 16 matchups of the season. Taylor's 17.7 points a game is good for a top-five mark in the conference.
Other notable performances for MBU came by way of
Lauren Ebert (8 points, 3 rebounds),
Nyah Ford (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), and
Kelsie Williams (3 points, 3 rebounds).
Missouri Baptist will again travel for its next game, starting the schedule cycle of AMC games over by traveling to Fulton, Mo., for a matchup with seventh-place William Woods University on Thursday, Jan 19th, at 5:30 pm.
