CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The Missouri State Lady Bears closed out the regular season Saturday night with a 65-64 loss at UNI inside the McLeod Center.
MSU (16-13, 12-6 Missouri Valley Conference) completed its third consecutive top-three conference finish and has now compiled a 39-15 MVC record the last three seasons. The Lady Bears open MVC Tournament play against sixth-seeded Evansville at 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 10, in Moline, Ill.
Missouri State got off to a quick start, leading 15-8 after a quarter while shooting 6-for-9 from the floor and forcing six UNI turnovers over the first 10 minutes. The Panthers (22-7, 15-3) turned the tables in the second period, forcing 10 MSU miscues to send the game into halftime tied at 26-all.
Aubrey Buckley and Alexa Willard scored in the first minute of the third quarter to put MSU ahead 30-26, and Willard drained a 3-pointer at the 6:24 mark to match Missouri State’s largest lead at 37-31. Liza Fruendt scored for 39-33 with 5:22 left before the Panthers rattled off a 12-2 run to lead 45-41 with 9:50 remaining in the game.
The Panthers scored for a 51-45 lead at the 8:09 mark, and the teams traded buckets to a 60-56 score on Fruendt’s trey with 2:09 to play. The Lady Bears got a defensive stop and then an offensive board, but were trapped on the baseline and a call for timeout went unheard by the officials. The result was a turnover and UNI basket with 37.1 seconds left to make it 62-56.
Missouri State got a pair of 3-pointers in the final 3.2 seconds, first from Lexi Hughes to make it 63-61, and then from Aubrey Buckley with 0.4 seconds left, but UNI hit a pair of free throws in the interim to seal the game.
Fruendt led MSU with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Hughes (14), Danielle Gitzen (11) and Buckley (10) joined her in double figures.
The Lady Bears held a 35-23 rebounding edge and shot 50 percent in the game, but the Panthers scored 28 points off 24 Missouri State turnovers while committing only 13 miscues of their own.
