Bolivar, Mo. – The Bearcats played the Missouri Western Griffons for the second time in just over a week. SBU won Thursday evening, defeating MWSU 82-62 to improve to 8-17 (4-12 MIAA) on the year.
Although the Griffons scored the first bucket, SBU responded and took a 9-6 lead early in the first. After a Missouri Western basket,
Morgan Henderson made a layup and
Bailey Rezabek hit one of her five three pointers to go ahead 14-8. Rezabek hit two more three's before the end of the quarter, but Western hit three free throws with less than a second left to go ahead 22-21 at the end of the first.
Laura Vierkant hit back to back three's to begin the second quarter, followed by a
Bailey Rezabek layup, giving SBU a 29-23 lead with 8:09 to go in the half. Just as the Griffons were working their way back,
Taliayah Wilson,
Morgan Henderson, and
Caylee Richardson each scored a layup to keep the lead. Henderson scored again with under a minute to go, but the Griffons also made a layup, cutting the SBU lead to 41-38 going into halftime.
The Bearcats came out of the break strong, outscoring the Griffons 20-7 in the third quarter. Missouri Western scored their 7 points within the first 3 minutes of the quarter, and wouldn't score again until the fourth. From the 7:15 mark on, SBU went on a 14-0 run to end the quarter. During the run, Rezabek hit another three and SBU made 7 free throws. SBU led 61-45 heading into the fourth.
Southwest Baptist kept their foot on the gas, maintaining a double digit lead the entire fourth quarter.
Madison Strong made a three to push SBU's lead to 19 with 8:04 left in the contest.
Regan Tibbits made a free throw a couple minutes later to give the Bearcats a 49-69 lead. The teams went back and forth, ending with a final score of 82-62 in favor of the Bearcats.
Bailey Rezabek went a perfect 7-7 from the field, including 5-5 from three point range to score 19 points.
Morgan Henderson scored 16 points, going 6-10 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line.
Caylee Richardson also had 10 points in her double-double performance, grabbing a career high 17 rebounds.
SBU will play their last home game on Saturday, February 23 against Northwest Missouri State, starting at 1:30 PM.
