Missouri State picked up its sixth consecutive home win and locked in the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Friday evening with a 79-61 win over Southern Illinois at JQH Arena.
The Lady Bears (17-10, 13-3 MVC) held SIU (14-13, 9-7) without a field goal for more than 11 minutes in the first half on the way to their 47th win in the last 60 conference games, and host Evansville at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, and Indiana State at 2 p.m. on March 3 before opening MVC Tournament play on Friday, March 9 at 6 p.m. in Moline, Ill.
Missouri State led for all but 48 seconds in the game, going up 20-12 with 2:21 left in the first quarter on a pair of Aubrey Buckley free throws. The Salukis hit a 3-pointer 31 seconds later, but missed 16 consecutive field goal tries over the next 11 minutes, managing only two free throws between MSU runs of 8-0 and 11-0 that put the Lady Bears ahead 39-17 on an Alexa Willard jumper with 48 seconds left until halftime.
Southern Illinois cut MSU’s lead to 13 points with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter, but the Lady Bears were back up by 21 three minutes after that and kept the margin at 15 or greater for the rest of the game.
Willard finished with 18 points on 6-for-10 from the field and 6-for-6 from the foul line, Buckley added 14 points and Danielle Gitzen scored 10 to become the 64th player in school history with 500 career points. Liza Fruendt added eight points and eight rebounds.
The Lady Bears shot 46.7 percent overall, including 55 percent from inside the 3-point line, adding 22-for-28 at the charity stripe. MSU committed just eight turnovers and scored 20 points off 16 SIU miscues, with nine different players recording exactly one steal.
Missouri State improved to 10-2 at JQH Arena this season, and has now won at least 13 MVC games in 15 of 26 seasons in the league.
