SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State women’s basketball improved to 4-4 on the year with a 68-59 victory over the UT Martin Skyhawks (4-7) here Saturday afternoon at Great Southern Bank Arena.
Sophomore Kennedy Taylor turned in a career-best performance with 23 points and three steals. Taylor shot 8-for-13 from the field and 7-for-10 from the charity stripe, while also grabbing seven rebounds in just 22 minutes on the floor.
Nineteen of Taylor’s 23 points came in a crucial second half as the Lady Bears worked to maintain their lead over the Skyhawks.
A seven-point stretch in the third quarter sparked by a Paige Rocca three-pointer and followed by two Taylor free throws and an Aniya Thomas layup proved to be vital for the Lady Bear victory. The run put the Lady Bears up by nine, in what would tie their largest lead of the game and be the ultimate margin of victory, after leading by just two points with 3:40 remaining in the third.
From there, UT Martin could only get it back within four points, near the seven minute mark in the fourth quarter, before MSU once again pulled away using a five-point spurt courtesy of Taylor and Sydney Wilson. Taylor connected on the final two baskets of the game to give Missouri State its second consecutive victory and put the Lady Bears back at .500 on the season.
Missouri State got off to a hot start on the afternoon, jumping out to an 8-1 lead after an Indya Green jumper to start the game and back-to-back treys via Wilson and Isabelle Delarure. The Lady Bears shot 54 percent (7-of-13) from the field in the first quarter, including seven points from Wilson on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting, and held a 20-16 lead after one in Springfield.
UTM punched back immediately out of the quarter break, reeling off a 6-0 run to take a two-point lead over the Lady Bears. Both teams swapped baskets for the remainder of the quarter with Thomas hitting a go-ahead layup with 0:24 left in the half to give MSU a slim 31-29 advantage heading to the break.
Taylor’s 23-point performance, which marked MSU’s first 20-point scorer of the season, paced the Lady Bears, while Wilson and Delarue each reached double-digits in scoring with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Green logged her fourth double-figure rebounding game of the season with 12 boards on the afternoon, Thomas logged eight assists which was one shy of tying her career high from earlier this season and Jade Masogayo blocked four shots against the Skyhawks.
As a team, MSU shot 41 percent from the field and once again outrebounded their opponent, this time by a +14-margin, 45-31. The Lady Bears scored 19 points off 18 UTM turnovers and recorded 16 assists on 25 made baskets.
Missouri State will close out non-conference play as they welcome Little Rock to Great Southern Bank Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 21. Tipoff against the Trojans is set for 1 p.m.
