Missouri State earned its largest come-from-behind victory in six years on Sunday, rallying from a 15-point halftime deficit and 14-point fourth-quarter margin to defeat Bradley 59-56 at JQH Arena.
The Lady Bears (17-8, 10-3 Missouri Valley Conference) completed their largest comeback since rallying from 18 points down against Drake on Feb. 7, 2010, and regained a share of first place in the league standings thanks to a Drake loss to Indiana State. Bradley fell to 7-17 and 3-10 in league games.
Missouri State trimmed 10 points off Bradley’s halftime lead midway through the third quarter after Kenzie Williams hit a layup for 34-29 with 3:58 to play.
The Braves quickly regained a double-figure advantage before Lexi Hughes beat the third-quarter buzzer with a trey to make it 44-36, but Bradley scored the first six points of the final period to lead 50-36 with 8:20 remaining.
MSU began it’s furious rally with a Tyonna Snow 3-pointer that started a 9-0 run for a 50-45 deficit on a Hughes jumper with 5:59 to play. Bradley pushed its lead back to nine points before Snow kicked off a 10-0 MSU run that resulted in a 55-54 lead on two Williams free throws with 2:07 remaining.
Bradley countered with two free throws 17 seconds later, and the Lady Bears came up empty on their next two possessions before Audrey Holt’s rebound with 28 seconds left gave MSU one final chance.
The Braves fouled Danielle Gitzen with 19.2 ticks on the clock and the freshman calmly sank the two foul shots for a 57-56 advantage. Bradley then missed two shots for the win, Snow grabbed the second rebound, and Liza Fruendt hit two foul shots with 5.4 seconds left for 59-56 before Bradley’s long distance three at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
BU jumped out to a 16-2 lead as MSU shot 1-for-11 and committed four turnovers in the first eight minutes. Bradley led by double digits for all but 68 seconds on the way to a 33-18 halftime lead, shooting 53.6 percent compared to a .226 figure for the Lady Bears.
Missouri State connected on its final eight free throws of the game, all in the final 2:39, and 15-of-18 overall, while owning a 20-14 turnover advantage to help neutralize a .317 shooting percentage. Bradley shot 45.1 percent, but was just 3-for-12 with five turnovers in the fourth quarter.
Snow scored a game-high 22 points, passing Christiana Shorter for the No. 12 spot in career scoring at MSU, and stuffed a career-high five shots, the most for a Lady Bear since 2011. Hughes added 10 points, Hillary Chvatal grabbed eight rebounds, and Williams dished out five assists.
MSU makes its final road trip of the season next weekend with visits to Southern Illinois at 6 p.m. Friday and Evansville at 1 p.m. Sunday.
