Arkansas State rode the inside duo of Adrianne Davie and Ashley Anderson to knock off an injury-plagued Missouri State women’s basketball squad, 67-54, dropping the Lady Bears to 0-3 on the season and spoiling Monday evening’s home opener at Hammons Student Center.
Anderson sparked the Arkansas State offense in the opening minutes of each half, scoring six of the Lady Indians’ first eight points of the ballgame, as the visitors built an early nine-point advantage. Anderson, who scored the first eight Arkansas State points of the second stanza, combined with Davie to turn an eight-point halftime lead into a 16-point advantage seven minutes into the second half. Together, Anderson and Davie scored 15 of the Lady Indians’ first 17 points in the second half.
The Lady Bears, who lost four players this past week to injuries, struggled from the field in the first half, hitting just 5 of their 18 (27.8%) field goal attempts. Missouri State got a big boost from a pair of freshmen making their first collegiate starts to stay within striking distance. Taylor Silas knocked down a pair of three-pointers and went 4-for-4 from the foul line to lead the Lady Bears with 10 first-half points, and Roxy Stiles came through with seven points after hitting Missouri State’s only other field goals of the half.
Arkansas State entered the break with a 12-0 scoring advantage in the paint, as Davie and Anderson accounted for nine of the Lady Indians’ 11 field goals in the opening half. The Lady Indians defense also played a key role in first half. After Silas sank her first three-point field goal to even the score at 6-6 with 16:44 left, Arkansas State held the Lady Bears scoreless over the next eight minutes until Stiles connected on a jumper at the 8:10 mark.
After Anderson and Davie did their damage early in the second half to extend the Arkansas State lead to 46-30 at the 12:33 mark, the Lady Bears went on a 14-3 run to draw within five points with just over six minutes remaining. But senior All-Sun Belt Conference guard Rudy Sims knocked down an 18-foot jumper, and the Lady Indians benefited from a foul called after the shot when Ali Carter buried her second three-point basket of the half to make it a 54-44 ballgame.
The Lady Bears would get no closer than six points the rest of the way, as Sims, Carter and Davie combined to score 19 of the Lady Indians’ final 21 points.
Stiles equaled her first half performance, going 3-of-6 in the second half to finish with a team-high 14 points. In all, four Lady Bears scored in double figures and Missouri State out-rebounded the Lady Indians, 39-25. But Arkansas State’s defense forced 24 turnovers in the ballgame, including 15 in the opening half, as the Lady Bears struggled to find an offensive rhythm throughout the contest.
Junior guard Tahnee Balerio, who averaged 18.5 points to lead the Lady Bears through the first two games of the season, was held scoreless through the contest’s first 25 minutes and hit just 2-of-12 shots on the night to finish with 10 points. Junior forward Tiff Terwelp went 0-for-5 from the floor in the opening half, but connected on 5-of-7 second-half field goal attempts to finish with her second straight double-double. Terwelp registered a career high 14 rebounds to go along with 10 points.
Anderson posted a career-high 16 points, while Davie finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Indians, who improved to 2-2 on the season.
The Lady Bears will be back in action Monday, Nov. 27, when they host the University of Arkansas-Little Rock in a 7:05 p.m., contest at Hammons.
