COLUMBIA, Mo. – Sometimes, it simply isn't meant to be. MBU women's basketball found that out on Monday night. With the hopes of dethroning Columbia College (CC), the reigning American Midwest Conference (AMC) tournament champions in the final, the Spartans were instead outplayed in the second half en route to a third loss to the Cougars this season.
 
Missouri Baptist (24-5, 18-2 in AMC) and Columbia (26-4, 18-2 in AMC) were seemingly on a collision course for this game from the start of the tournament. Both teams won comfortably in their quarterfinal matchups before extinguishing their semifinal opposition by margins of 32 and 22 points, respectively. The Spartans and Cougars played it close in both games of the season series, but CC managed to pull out victories in both of those contests.
 
The AMC final had a similar vibe to it from the get-go. Both schools played with a tenacity only explained by the hopes for each of walking out of the Southwell Complex with a trophy in hand. Columbia's efficiency, especially after halftime, and rebounding margin (45-to-31) proved to be the difference. The Cougars ended the night by shooting 43.1 percent from the field (25-of-58), 31.3 percent beyond the arc (5-of-16), 78.3 percent from the charity stripe (18-of-23).
 
The Spartans combated the home crowd noise in the first by putting together 34 points and led by one at halftime. Senior Lauren Ebert ended the evening with the high mark for MoBap of 13 points and was the only Spartan in double figures. Deyana Dodd was a sparkplug early on, scoring six of her eight points in the first quarter and ended the night with the lead in rebounds for the visitors at six total. Dodd also tied for the MBU lead in steals (3) with Tionne Taylor, who was bottled up for only seven points on the night.
 
After MoBap tied the game at 41 apiece five minutes after the intermission, Columbia went on and produced a 9-3 run to finish the third period. The last 10 minutes was all Cougars, and MBU had to resign to runners-up in the conference tournament similar to the 2006 season, the last and only ever time before Monday that the Spartans played in the AMC's final game.
 
The Spartans have more season to play by way of the second automatic postseason bid for the AMC. With the berth in the NAIA National Tournament opening round going to MBU after head coach Samuel Pearson's team managed to make the tournament final to face Columbia, the Spartans will have a chance at earning its first-ever victory in the big dance come the month of March.
 
Other MBU statlines of note were Kasey Rice (8 points), Nyah Ford (7 points, 2 assists), Alexis Allstun (6 points, 4 rebounds), and Bryce Dowell (5 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds).
 
Missouri Baptist will now await its fate of an opening round site and its opponent draw coming by way of the NAIA women's basketball selection show on Thursday, March 2nd at 6:00 pm.