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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Turnovers lead to
Lions' 77-54 loss to NW Missouri State in MIAA Tournament Kansas City, Mo. - The Missouri Southern Lions came out with a lot of energy to begin the game, but eventually turnovers and red-hot perimeter shooting from the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats in the first half led to the fourth-seeded Lions falling 77-54 to the fifth-seeded Bearcats in the quarterfinals of the MIAA Tournament Friday afternoon (Mar. 2) at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. The Lions finish the year with their sixth straight winning season at 14-13 overall, while Northwest improves to 18-10 and will face top-seeded Missouri Western in the semifinals on Saturday (Mar. 3). The Griffons routed the No. 8 seed Pittsburg State Gorillas 86-66 in the first game of the day. The Lions turned the ball over 20 times on the day that led to a whopping 29 points for Northwest, with the Bearcats scoring 23 off the Lions' miscues in the first half. Northwest led much of the way due to a blazing shooting performance from beyond the arc in the opening stanza. The Bearcats made 7-of-16 from three-point distance in the opening half and 12-of-31 overall. Tynesha Pierce (Houston, Texas) got the Lions off to a solid start by scoring the first nine and 10 of the first 12 twelve for the Lions as Southern built a 14-9 lead with 13:45 left in the first half. However, shortly after Pierce picked up her second foul and was forced to sit out the remainder of the opening half. The Bearcats quickly turned the pendulum by hitting three consecutive three-pointers to turn a five-point deficit into an 18-14 advantage just over a minute later. Danielle DeVader (Holton, Kan.) brought the Lions within one with a trey of her own, but Northwest went on an 11-2 spurt to build a double-digit lead of 29-19 with 8:11 remaining in the first half. The Bearcats' used a balanced attack to gain the big lead as four different Northwest players scored during the nine-point run. Northwest stretched the lead to as high as 14 on a layup from Katie O'Grady that made it 44-30, but jumpers from senior Dana-Mae Robbs (Lecompton, Kan.) and Ela Zawadka (Torun, Poland) brought Southern within 10 with 1:02 left in the first half. But the Lions turned it over with 11 seconds left with a chance to cut the lead to single-digits and Micaela Uriell hit a layup with one second left to put the Bearcats up 46-34 at the half. Pierce scored the first basket of the second half to cut the Northwest lead to 10 as the Bearcats were scoreless nearly four minutes after halftime. The Bearcats had an answer though as Kelli Nelson scored four straight points and Meghan Brue hit a three to give Northwest a commanding 17 point lead at 53-36 with 14:36 left. Southern tried to hang in as Fatai Hala'Api'Api (Lahaina, Hawaii) made two consecutive layups to trim the lead to 13, but a layup from April Miller and treys from Lindsay Bayer and O'Grady keyed an 8-2 run to put the Bearcats up 61-42 with 10:00 remaining. The Lions never could get closer than 15 from that point. Pierce gave an outstanding performance for the Lions, leading all scorers with 20 points and also pulling down a team-high nine rebounds. Hala'Api'Api scored eight and had eight boards. O'Grady led four Bearcats in double-figures with 14 and hit 4-of-9 from three-point range. Brue scored 12, Bayer chipped in with 11 and Nelson added 10 for Northwest. Miller gave a solid all-around performance for the Bearcats with four points, nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals. The Lions shot 37.7 percent (20-of-53) overall but only 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from three-point distance, including 0-of-7 from long-range in the second half. The Bearcats wound up shooting 41.5 percent (27-of-65) for the game but set the tone with a 51.6 percent (16-of-31) shooting clip in the second half. Robbs wrapped up her two-year career with the Lions with seven points and three rebounds. Robbs led the Lions this season in scoring (13.6) and rebounding (6.9).
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