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Bolivar, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University's Women's Basketball team lost a tight game to #18 Missouri Western in their second conference game of the season 93-87. The loss drops SBU's record to 5-2 (1-1 MIAA) on the season..
 
Ashlee Pitts opened the game with a jumper with Mackenzie scoring quickly after giving the Bearcats a quick 4-0 lead. MWSU scored next but a layup from Caylee Richardson kept the Bearcats leading by 4. Sarah Magana scored on a 3-pointer with an assist from Morgan Lucy to bring the score to 9-4. The Griffons scored a layup but Dilonna Johnson responded with a 3-pointer with 6:07 left in the first quarter. MWSU scored 2 free throws before fouling Megan Rosenbohm on a 3-pointer which allowed Rosenbohm to shoot and make all 3 extending SBU's lead to 15-10. MWSU scored again but SBU's Johnson quickly dished it off to Natalie O'Keefe who scored on a jumper at the 4:07 mark. The score would go back and forth with SBU maintaining the lead 25-18 as the 1st quarter ended.
 
The second quarter would remain scoreless until Morgan Lucy scored on a layup with 8:10 left in the half. Another couple minutes would pass before Rosenbohm was able to score on a layup and a free-throw bringing the score up to 30-18. The Griffins went on a 9-0 run before Rosenbohm cut it off with a free-throw with 4:38 left in the half. Both teams scored primarily on free-throws for the next few minutes of a game before O'Keefe hit a jumper from Magana giving SBU a double-digit lead of 41-30. Another jumper from O'Keefe and free-throws from Johnson ended the first half with SBU leading 45-35.
 
The 3rd quarter started off with free-throws from MWSU but Alex Botkin was able to get in the paint and score a layup quickly after which started a 6-0 run for the Bearcats (53-37) and the largest lead of the game. Magana passed it off to Johnson who hit a 3-pointer with 7:08 left in the quarter, and Magana picked up another assist as she would dish it off to O'Keefe who again scored on a jumper bringing the score to 59-43. MWSU would go on a 6-0 run which O'Keefe ended with another jumper (61-49). MWSU would slowly start to chip away at SBU's lead but a layup by Caylee Richardson kept the Bearcats in the lead with 2:17 on the clock. SBU would end the 3rd quarter with a 7-2 run with shots from Richardson and Johnson and the Bearcats holding the lead 72-64.
 
MWSU started the final quarter with a layup but Pitts answered back with a 3-pointer from Richardson. A steal by Rosenbohm would give the ball back to SBU and a foul by the Griffons sent Johnson to the line who was able to hit both free-throws bringing the score to 79-66. Another MWSU foul put Richardson on the line who also hit both her free-throws with 8:07 left in the game. The Griffons went on another small run but a layup by Richardson ended that with SBU still leading 81-73. MWSU continued to chip away at SBU's lead before taking the lead 84-83 with 2:10 left in the game. O'Keefe's free throw would tie the game and a free-throw soon after from Pitts would let SBU regain the lead 85-84. The Griffons scored 4 more points but 2 free throws from Rosenbohm would keep the Bearcats only down by 1 point with 0:33 left in the game. Despite strong defense down the stretch, MWSU would go on one last run and the Bearcats would drop the game 93-87.
 
Dilonna Johnson led the Bearcats offensively with 18 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds with Caylee Richardson chipping in 14 points. Coming off the bench, Natalie O'Keefe had a career high 17 points and Megan Rosenbohm contributed 13 points. As a team, the Bearcats shot 42.8% from the field, 27.8% from behind the 3-point line, and 73.9% from the free throw line.
 
SBU Women's basketball team will face-off against the University of Nebraska-Kearney next on Thursday, December 10th. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from the Meyer Sports Center in Bolivar.