LAS VEGAS – Missouri State women’s basketball improved to 2-2 on the season with a 74-51 win over UTSA here Friday afternoon.An important run early in the third quarter proved to be the turning point for the Lady Bears as the Roadrunners (1-3) cut the MSU lead to five points with the first basket out of the half after MSU had led by as many as 17 points in the first half.Following that first basket, the momentum took a huge turn in favor of the Lady Bears as Isabelle Delarue and Sydney Wilson reeled off a 10-0 run to put MSU back on top by 15 points, a lead they would not relinquish. Delarue jumpstarted the surge with back-to-back triples, her third and fourth three-pointers of the game, before Wilson connected on layups on consecutive possessions to give the entire Lady Bears squad a big energy boost.From there, MSU kept its foot on the gas and sustained a final push from the Roadrunners who cut the lead to eight points with time winding down in the third period.The momentum shift of the third period turned into dominance in the fourth quarter as MSU outscored UTSA, 20-6, and held the Roadrunners to just one made field goal in the final 10 minutes. Missouri State bookended UTSA’s field goal with 11-and 9-point runs to lead by 27 with less than two minutes remaining before UTSA scored four points via free throws in the final minute.The first half saw Lady Bear success right out of the gate with MSU using a huge three-pointer from Delarue to begin the game before ultimately taking a commanding 13-4 lead with a just a couple of minutes remaining in the first quarter. Capria Brown capped the quarter with a steal and layup as time expired to give MSU the 19-8 advantage after a period.MSU faced their toughest challenge of the afternoon in the second quarter as UTSA outscored the Lady Bears, 17-13. Despite Missouri State extending its lead to 17 points, the Lady Bears’ largest lead of the first half, the Roadrunners used seven-and five-point runs to cut MSU’s lead to seven before swapping free throws to end the first half with the Lady Bears leading 32-25.Delarue was the team’s leading scorer with 15 points (4-for-6 3FG), followed by Aniya Thomas who had 14 points and a career-high nine assists. Kennedy Taylor and Indya Green contributed 11 points each, while Taylor also pulled down 10 rebounds to record her first career double-double.As a squad, MSU forced 22 UTSA turnovers and scored 19 points off those turnovers, while outscoring the Roadrunners 34-22 in the paint. The Lady Bears shot 44 percent from the field, 47 percent from three-point range and 88 percent from the charity stripe.The Lady Bears will be back in action tomorrow at 1 p.m. CT to close out the Las Vegas Invitational against Middle Tennessee (2-2).
