BATESVILLE, Ark. – The second half of the American Midwest Conference (AMC) schedule requires a different resolve for a contending team. MBU women's basketball won against all but one team the first time facing off with each conference opponent. The Spartans are a perfect 2-0 on the second pass so far after defeating the Scots of Lyon College (LC) on Saturday.
MBU (15-3, 11-1 in AMC) played to a steady and methodical 70-54 win against Lyon (6-6, 7-9 in AMC) to sweep the Scots in the regular season for the first time in program history. MoBap came into the season 0-23 all-time against LC. The Spartans got another big game from graduate transfer
Kasey Rice, who led all scorers with 21 and boasted a full stat line of five-made 3-pointers, six rebounds, three steals, and two blocks.
Assisting Rice in the point tally with double-digit scoring was the usual suspect of
Tionne Taylor and fellow starter
Lauren Ebert. The seniors both hit on two 3-pointers apiece and scored 16 and 13 points, respectively. Ebert matched Rice's six rebounds to lead the visitors in crashing the glass.
The Spartans outdid the Scots in every quarter but the second. MoBap jumped out of the gate quickly, making five of their nine triples in the first quarter alone. Lyon slowly inched back into the contest, cutting the lead to 32-25 at halftime, but that seven-point deficit was the closest the Scots would get the rest of the way. MBU took the game by the scruff in the second half, hitting timely shots in the third quarter to keep LC from closing the gap. MoBap went on an 18-6 run to effectively put the game to bed for the Spartans eighth win in a row and eleventh victory from 12 contests in the AMC this season.
Other statlines of note for MBU came from
Nyah Ford (6 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds),
Joelle Atkins (6 points, 4 rebounds), and
Kelsie Williams (3 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals).
Missouri Baptist will get a break from road trips next week. The Spartans welcome the Mustangs of Central Baptist College to the Petty SRC on Thursday, Jan 26th, for a 5:30 pm tip-off.
