ST. LOUIS – Over the first two-thirds of the season, MBU women's basketball had games where the 3-pointer just did not want to fall. The Spartans took the lid off with authority on Thursday night and rolled to a ninth-straight victory.
MBU (16-3, 11-1 in AMC) returned to the friendly confines of the Carl & Deloris Petty SRC for the first time in five games and picked back up where the road trip ended. MoBap executed effectively all night en route to a 93-51 against Central Baptist College (CBC). The Spartans found success scoring against the Mustangs (8-10, 8-10 in AMC) down low (26 points in the paint), off of turnovers (33 points), but particularly from beyond the arc. The Spartans recorded 14 treys, the most of any game this season, with seniors Tionne Taylor and Lauren Ebert both connecting on four three-pointers apiece.
Bryce Dowell poured in 21 points to lead the home side in scoring off of the bench. Dowell, a transfer from Moberly Area Community College, had three three-pointers. Taylor and Ebert followed with 18 and 14, respectively, while Ebert pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
The Spartans found themselves going back and forth with the Mustangs, with a score of 8-8 after nearly eight minutes. early on until back-to-back threes from Taylor blew things open. MoBap doubled CBC's scoring in the span of two minutes to end the first quarter and continued the trend in the second quarter. MBU went to the break ahead 40-20, then controlled things in the second half and ran its advantage all the way into the forties by game's end.
Despite not scoring, guard Deyana Dodd facilitated masterfully by dropping eight assists, good for a new season high. Dodd was also one of 10 Spartans to steal the ball at least once. MoBap had 18 takeaways for the game.
Other statlines of note for MBU came from Kasey Rice (10 points, 4 rebounds), Kayleigh Winch (9 points, 4 rebounds), and Kelsie Williams (5 rebounds, 3 steals).
"We got a heck of a group," head coach Sam Pearson said. "We shoot the basketball too well to not shoot it well [and] at some point, this thing's going to start going and when it goes it goes in bunches. That's kind of how it was tonight. We shot the cover off of it, especially early… [so] it feels good to win in the fashion that we did."
Missouri Baptist will have the other American Midwest Conference Baptist school from Arkansas come to town on Saturday. The Spartans host the Williams Baptist Eagles on Jan. 28th, at 1:00 pm.
