Missouri State trailed Northern Iowa by as many as 15 points Sunday afternoon and fought back to within one point on two occasions late in the game before falling by a 65-60 final at JQH Arena. The Panthers made all six of their free throw tries in the final minute in a battle of two of the top three teams in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll.
The Lady Bears (9-7, 2-2) made their first two shots of the game for a 4-0 lead, but led for only 75 seconds as a 1-for-11 shooting slump followed and let the Panthers (8-7, 3-1) go ahead 12-6 with 4:17 left in the first quarter.
UNI added a 12-0 run to lead 25-10 early in the second period before nine quick points from Liza Fruendt pulled the Lady Bears to 27-19 with 3:51 left before the half. The Panthers responded 22 seconds later and carried the double-digit lead into halftime at 33-22.
Tyonna Snow scored four points in a 7-0 run that pulled MSU to 35-29 early in the second half, but UNI countered with one of several critical 3-pointers and had the lead back in double figures at 40-29 midway through the third period.
Fruendt followed with five straight points and Audrey Holt added a layup for a 42-38 deficit with 1:15 to play, and UNI opened the final quarter on a 5-0 run to lead 49-40.
Hillary Chvatal capped a 6-0 MSU run for 51-48 with 6:13 on the clock, but UNI’s Madison Weekly hit back-to-back treys in the next minute to push the advantage back to nine points.
The Lady Bears had one final rally, closing to 59-58 on Fruendt’s triple with 1:23 to play and getting a bucket from Snow to pull to 61-60 with 35.6 seconds left. Weekly answered each basket by hitting two free throws on the other end, and MSU missed two shots on the ensuing possession before UNI sank two more foul shots with 16.6 seconds left to seal the game.
Fruendt led Missouri State with 17 points and was joined in double figures by Chvatal (11) and Snow (10). MSU owned a 45-25 advantage on the glass as Holt and Danielle Gitzen grabbed career highs of 11 and eight rebounds, respectively, in their first career starts.
The Panthers committed just eight turnovers and shot 41.5 percent overall and 8-for-24 from long range, while the Lady Bears finished 25-for-68 (.368) overall and made only two treys in 16 tries.
The Lady Bears are on the road again next weekend, visiting Bradley at 7 p.m. Friday and Loyola at 2 p.m. Sunday.
