The Missouri State Lady Bears dropped their eighth-consecutive contest Saturday afternoon, as Northern Iowa used a cavalcade of three-pointers and a late scoring run to seal a 90-72 victory in Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball action at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
UNI junior guard Traci Ollendieck turned in a career-best 26-point effort on 8-of-12 shooting from the field to lead all scorers. Ollendieck went 5-of-8 from three-point range, as UNI hit on 11-of-21 attempts from beyond the arc as a team.
Northern Iowa knocked down 13-of-23 field goal attempts in the second half, including 5-of-9 from three-point range, to outscore the Lady Bears 46-32 in the period. The Panthers also took advantage of some Missouri State charity, connecting on 29-of-38 free throw attempts in the ballgame.
Both teams got off to a strong start from behind the three-point arc, combining to go 13-of-23 in the opening half. It was UNI who took advantage of the long ball early on, using an 11-2 run to build a 24-12 lead midway through the first half. Ollendieck hit two of her three first-half treys during the scoring spurt and finished with 14 points for the half on 5-of-6 shooting.
The Panthers were hot from the foul line as well, knocking down 14-of-15 free throw attempts in the game's first 20 minutes.
Fresh off of a 35-point effort in Thursday’s 78-75 loss at Bradley, junior guard Tahnee Balerio posted another solid performance for the Lady Bears Saturday, tallying 15 points in the first half before finishing with 21 on the afternoon. The Lady Bears rallied behind Balerio’s three three-pointers and Roxy Stiles’ nine points to cut the UNI advantage to 44-40 at the break.
Missouri State trimmed its deficit to one point on three separate occasions before finally taking their first lead of the ballgame on three Melissa Busby free throws with 12:22 left on the clock.
But UNI answered with a 23-8 scoring run and held the Lady Bears without a field goal for over six minutes to seize control of the contest. Ollendieck buried two key threes and scored all 12 of her second half points during that stretch to total 26 points before fouling out with 3:24 to play.
The Lady Bears will be back in action Friday, Feb. 23, when they kick off a two-game homestand with a 7:35 p.m. game against the Creighton Bluejays. Missouri State will also take on Drake next weekend in a 2:05 p.m. match-up Sunday, Feb. 25, at Hammons Student Center.
