Missouri State’s 14th NCAA Tournament appearance ended in the first round Saturday afternoon with a 74-65 setback to fourth-seeded and 18th-ranked Texas A&M inside Reed Arena.
The 13th-seeded Lady Bears (24-10) trailed the Aggies (22-9) by two points at halftime before the home team connected on 13 of 18 shots in the third quarter separate themselves with a 54-37 lead entering the final period.
Missouri State led for more than four minutes in the first half despite shooting 25 percent from the floor, and led 22-21 with under three minutes to play thanks in large part to forcing 17 A&M turnovers.
Texas A&M scored with 23 seconds before intermission to take the lead for good at 25-23, and pushed the margin to double figures at 38-28 with 5:50 left in the third quarter. Liza Fruendt knocked down her 100th career 3-pointer 38 seconds later, but the Aggies closed the period on a 14-4 run after making their final five shots.
The resilient Lady Bears shot 59 percent in the fourth quarter, fighting until the final seconds when Lexi Hughes buried a long 3-pointer to get the final margin to single digits.
MSU’s three seniors accounted for 48 points in their final outing, with Tyonna Snow leading the way with 22 while nabbing two steals to set the Missouri State single-season record at 109. Kenzie Williams scored 18 – including 13 in the fourth quarter – while hauling in a team-high eight rebounds.
The Aggies shot 29-of-63 (.460) in the game compared to 24-for-71 (.338) for the Lady Bears, and owned a 55-35 rebounding edge thanks in large part to Anriel Howard’s NCAA Tournament-record 27 boards.
Missouri State swiped 14 steals and forced 24 turnovers while committing only 12 of its own.
For MSU’s seniors, Williams finishes her career ranked seventh in school history with 1,645 points. Snow owns both the career (352) and season (109) steals records while finishing ninth in scoring with 1,611 points. Chvatal ends her career ranked 14th in rebounding 629 boards and 12th with 59 blocked shots.
