Lady Bears Hold Off Racers for Fourth Straight Home Win
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Missouri State got another big performance from Casey Garrison and some clutch shooting from Jaleshia Roberson down the stretch to pull out a 76-70 victory over Murray State Wednesday evening at JQH Arena. The Lady Bears withstood the Racers’ second-half rally to claim their fourth straight home win and improve to 6-3 on the season.
Garrison, who turned in just the second triple-double performance in school history in last Tuesday’s win over Tulsa, nearly came through with another one Wednesday, leading all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting. The Bolivar, Mo., product also recorded game highs of nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals to pace the MSU attack.
But it was Roberson who came up with arguably the three biggest shots of the evening. Seconds after Murray took its first lead of the contest on a Mallory Luckett free throw with 8:35 to play, Roberson drained the second of her three triples in the second half to put the home team back on top for good. Her three would spark a 9-0 run, which Roberson capped with an acrobatic reverse layup in transition to give MSU a 65-57 lead at the 5:45 mark.
The Racers wouldn’t go away quietly, however, as baskets by Luckett and Jessica Holder sandwiched a Garrison drive to the basket and pulled Murray to within six again.
But Roberson, who totaled 15 points in all, would bank home a three from the right wing as the shot clock expired to push the Lady Bear lead to 70-61 with 3:34 to go, effectively sealing the victory, as the Racers would get no closer than five points the rest of the way.
Murray State (4-6) was able to come back behind a 7-of-11 second-half shooting performance from beyond the three-point arc. Kayla Vance, who went 4-of-7 from long range on the night, keyed the attack by knocking down a trio of treys after the break en route to finishing with a team-high 18 points.
MSU took a 41-34 lead into the halftime locker room behind Garrison’s 13 first-half points and a .528 (19-of-36) team shooting effort. Garrison hit on 5-of-8 field goal attempts, including a pair of three-pointers which give MSU some much-needed breathing room in the closing minutes of the period.
Missouri State grabbed the momentum early, scoring on eight of its first nine possessions to build a double-digit advantage. Garrison scored five of her 13 first-half points on back-to-back possessions, knocking down a 15-foot jumper as the shot clock wound down on the first, then converting an old-fashioned three-point play on the next to push MSU’s lead to 11-4 at the 16:43 mark.
Three more Lady Bear buckets pushed the margin to 11 points before the Racers would go on a run of their own to trim the deficit to six points midway through the period.
But the Lady Bears responded with four straight points to push the lead back to double digits. The Racers would pull to within 29-25, but Garrison sank a long jumper from the right wing to make it a seven-point game at the 3:12 mark. A second three from the sophomore guard made it a 37-30 game one minute later, and a Jasmine Malone jumper stretched the lead back to nine at the 1:33 mark before Vance closed the first-half scoring with a basket with 0:38 left on the clock.
Missouri State shot .477 (31-of-65) for the game and turned in a dominant performance in the paint. MSU outrebounded the Racers by a 45-33 margin and outscored the visitors 40-16 in the paint.
Malone also finished in double figures with a 12-point, six-rebound effort for Missouri State.
Missouri State (5-3) will conclude the non-conference season with a pair of road games, beginning with a Saturday (Dec. 19) afternoon match-up with Oral Roberts in Tulsa. Tip-off from the Mabee Center is slated for 12:05 p.m.
