The Missouri State Lady Bears fell behind early and never got their offense untracked in a 70-51 loss to Tulsa Saturday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm early in the contest. The Lady Bears found themselves in foul trouble just seven-plus minutes into the ballgame, as leading-scorer
Tahnee Balerio was forced to watch the final 12 minutes of the half from the bench after picking up her third personal foul. Missouri State suffered through a five-minute, sixteen-second scoring drought, but trailed just 11-5 after a
Roxy Stiles free throw at the 9:29 mark. After the Golden Hurricane extended their advantage to 11 points, the Lady Bears used a 6-0 scoring run to cut the margin to 17-12.
But Tulsa went on a 7-0 spurt of its own to push the lead back to double-digits before Missouri State scored the final four points of the half. The Lady Bears trailed 24-16 at the break despite turning the ball over 12 times and connecting on just 3-of-17 (17.6%) field goal attempts.
The Golden Hurricane turned to the one-two punch of Dana Idlet and Jillian Robbins to spark a 9-0 TU run after Balerio scored five straight points to cut the lead to 26-21 to start the second half. The duo combined to score the first 10 Tulsa points of the period before the Golden Hurricane stretched their lead to 44-28 at the 12:17 mark on a Destanie Gardner jumper.
Tulsa continued to benefit from Lady Bear foul problems, converting 18-of-29 free-throw attempts in the second half, as all but five Lady Bears fouled out in the contest. In all, the teams committed 59 fouls and shot 74 free throws combined, with TU going 27-of-42 for the game from the charity stripe.
But it was Robbins who took control mid-way through the second stanza to put the game out of reach, scoring 19 of her game-high 23 points after the break. The senior All-America candidate also hauled in 14 rebounds in the contest and went 7-of-12 from the floor to lead a second-half onslaught that saw the Golden Hurricane lead by as many as 26 points.
The Lady Bears never got closer than 18 points down the stretch and finished the game with just a .298 field goal percentage. Tulsa also finished with a 46-36 rebounding advantage, while turning the ball over just 10 times.
Junior forward
Tiff Terwelp provided one of the few bright spots for the Lady Bears, scoring 10 points in the second half and grabbing 16 boards to post her fifth double-double of the season and eclipse her career-high for rebounds in a single game.
Balerio led Missouri State with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting in just 21 minutes of action, while Stiles chipped in 12 points to register her third-straight double-digit scoring effort.
With the loss, Missouri State falls to 2-5 on the season, while Tulsa improved to 4-5. The Lady Bears return home to take on Oregon at 1:05 p.m., next Saturday, Dec. 16, at Hammons Student Center.
