The Missouri State women’s basketball team raced past Arkansas Tech 72-49, Sunday afternoon (Nov. 4) at Hammons Student Center in their first exhibition contest of the 2007-08 season. The Lady Bears got a big offensive afternoon from junior Maggie Dwyer, whose 13-point first half helped MSU build a 25-point advantage.
Missouri State jumped out to the early lead on the strength of a 13-0 offensive spurt and never looked back. The Lady Bears held the Golden Suns scoreless over a nine-minute span, as Arkansas Tech struggled to find any offense in the early going, hitting just one of its first 21 shots from the field and only 7-of-31 (.226) attempts in the half.
Dwyer and freshman Jacque Griggs sparked the MSU offense, combining for 10 of the Lady Bears’ first 15 points. Dwyer would go 5-of-8 from the floor in the opening period, while Griggs would tally six points to go along with a pair of assists and four steals.
The Lady Bears also got a lift off the bench in the form of sophomore Melissa Busby, who knocked down all three of her first-half three-point attempts. Her second three in as many Missouri State possessions with 2:43 left to play in the half capped a 9-0 Lady Bear scoring run, and junior Tiffany Coppage’s trey at the 0:58 mark pushed the MSU lead to 43-18, it’s largest of the afternoon. Missouri State went 7-of-12 (.583) from beyond the arc as a team in the first half and went into the break with a 43-21 lead.
Arkansas Tech outscored the Lady Bears 18-8 over the first nine minutes of the second half, trimming the lead to 51-39 on a Ruby Vaden free throw with 11:12 to play. But Busby answered with another big three-pointer and Dwyer and Griggs combined for the Lady Bears’ next eight points to extend the advantage back to 19 and seal the outcome.
Missouri State’s defense gave Arkansas Tech fits throughout the ballgame, as the Golden Suns committed 33 turnovers and connected on just 28.8 percent (17-of-59) of their field goal attempts.
Vaden scored 11 of her 13 points in the second period and finished with nine rebounds, while Amanda Grappe led the Golden Suns with 16 points and 10 rebounds on the afternoon.
Dwyer led all scorers with 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, while Griggs totaled 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists and six steals. Busby wrapped up the afternoon with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range, and senior Tahnee Balerio finished with eight assists and seven steals to go along with six points.
Next up, the Lady Bears will host Lambuth University on Tuesday (Nov. 6) in a 7:05 p.m. exhibition match-up at Hammons, before opening the regular season Nov. 11 with a road tilt at Texas. Missouri State will play its home opener Nov. 17 when it hosts Green Bay in a 1:05 p.m. game.
