Box Score

Jefferson City, Mo.  – The Southwest Baptist University women's basketball team came away with a big 65-57 road victory over Lincoln on Wednesday evening. With the win, the Bearcats improve to 15-12 (10-11 MIAA) to record their first winning season since the 2007-08 season.

The Bearcats and Blue Tigers both opened up the game with strong defense, as the Blue Tigers held a slim 5-2 advantage with 7:05 left in the first quarter. After LU would go up 7-2 with 4:48 left in the quarter, SBU responded with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes of the game. Leann Terrill scored on a layup, followed with back-to-back three's from Dilonna Johnson and Ashlee Pitts to give the Bearcats a 10-7 lead with 1:33 left in the first. However, Lincoln would connect on a three with 10 seconds left in the quarter as SBU and LU were tied 10-10 after one.

In the second quarter the back-and-forth contest began as the Bearcats responded to each made bucket by the Blue Tigers are the game was tied 15-15 with 7:39 left in the first half. SBU then went on a small 7-2 run, capped off with a three from Megan Rosenbohm, to give the Bearcats a 22-17 lead with 4:32 left in the quarter. The scoring continued to go back-and-forth as SBU would eventually take a 30-27 lead into the break.

After exchanging points coming out of the break, with SBU leading 34-31, the Bearcats went on a 9-0 run to quickly extend their lead to double-digits. Alex Botkin started to run off with a layup, followed by a Johnson three, Sarah Magana jumper, and finished off with a Richardson layup to give the Bearcats a 43-31 lead with 6:31 left in the quarter. However, the Blue Tigers continued to hang around and cut SBU's lead down to six (46-41) with 1:38 left in the quarter. A Richardson layup with six seconds left in the quarter gave the Bearcats a 48-41 lead heading into the fourth.

In the fourth quarter Lincoln came out and cut the lead back down to six, but a 4-0 SBU run extended their lead back to double-digits (53-43) with 7:57 to go in the game. The Blue Tigers continued to hang around, and after an 8-2 LU run the Bearcats' lead was down to four (55-51) with 5:55 remaining. SBU came right back down, and a big three from Rosenbohm pushed the lead back to seven at 58-51 which fueled a 7-2 run to put SBU up 62-53 with 4:15 to go. The Bearcats played strong defense down the stretch, allowing the Blue Tigers to score only four more points for the remainder of the game, as SBU went on to claim a 65-57 victory.

Caylee Richardson led the Bearcats with a game high 16 points and 8 rebounds, while Dilonna Johnson had 10 points and 8 assists. Megan Rosenbohm had 10 points off of the bench and Sarah Magana chipped in 9 points. As a team SBU shot 47.4% from the field, 33.3% from beyond the arc, and 71.4% from the line.

SBU will be back in action on Saturday, February 27 at Northwest Missouri for their final regular season contest of the season. Tip-off is set for 1:30 p.m. from Maryville, Missouri.