SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Missouri State Lady Bears outscored Bradley 13-4 over the final four minutes of regulation to come away with a 72-67 comeback win in their Missouri Valley Conference opener at JQH Arena Thursday afternoon. Lacey Boshe came up big for MSU, turning in a career-best 24 points to lead the Lady Bears' rally from a 12-point, second-half deficit.
Boshe's steal and breakaway layup with 5:43 to play drew Missouri State even with the Braves for the first time since the opening minute of the contest, and the sophomore forward would go on to score six more points down the stretch to help MSU post its fifth straight victory.
MSU's late rally began just as the Lady Bears' prospects looked bleakest. Trailing 55-46 with 9:50 to play, sophomore guard Jasmine Malone blocked a Raisa Taylor shot, but came down awkwardly and had to be helped off the court. The home team would reel off seven unanswered points to draw to within two points moments before Boshe's critical steal and drive to the basket knotted the score.
BU recovered behind the play of Taylor, who tallied the Braves' next six points to momentarily give her team a 63-59 edge.
But Missouri State made its final push, getting a Casey Garrison jumper that rolled around the rim twice before falling to inch to within two once again. Then, with 3:15 remaining, Melissa Busby got an open look from the left wing and sank the 113th three-pointer of her MSU career to put the Lady Bears on top for good.
In all, the Lady Bears would score nine straight points to build a 68-63 lead before the Braves would finally answer. BU would get no closer than three points the rest of the way, however, as a Boshe jumper and free throws from Garrison and Busby in the final minute would put the game on ice.
The victory for the Lady Bears marked their first five-game win streak under both head coach Nyla Milleson and the Missouri State banner. The last such stretch for the Lady Bears came in March 2005 during their WNIT title run, five months prior to the University's name change from Southwest Missouri State.
Bradley seemingly had an answer for every Missouri State challenge through the first 35 minutes of the contest. The Braves led by as many as 12 points early in the second half after scoring the first six points of the period. That followed a red-hot first half for the Braves, who torched the JQH Arena nets to the tune of 17-of-27 (.630) shooting to take a 40-34 lead into the halftime locker room.
The visitors led for all but 37 seconds of the first half, grabbing the early momentum by knocking down six of their first nine field goal attempts in the opening minutes of the contest. Sparked by five straight points from Yohn, the Braves responded to five unanswered Lady Bear points with a 7-0 spurt of their own to claim a 20-10 lead, their largest lead of the half. MSU scored 14 of the next 20 points, as Boshe scored six of her 12 first-half points to pull the Lady Bears to within two points at the 6:34 mark.
Bradley (4-7, 0-1 MVC) would use an 8-2 run, capped by another Yohn trey, to make it an eight-point game again before Boshe would hit a jumper with just under a minute to go to cap the first-half scoring.
BU freshman Katie Yohn, who converted 3-of-6 three-point tries in the period, scored 13 of her 18 points in the opening half to help the Braves overcome 16 early turnovers.
Garrison joined Boshe in double figures with contributions of 15 points, seven boards, six assists and five steals. Freshman Christiana Shorter also turned in a strong all-around performance that included 11 points, four rebounds and three steals to help MSU post its first win in a conference opener since the 2004-05 season.
Missouri State (9-3, 1-0 MVC) will be back in action Saturday (Jan. 1) when they host the UNI Panthers in a 2:05 p.m. contest at JQH Arena.
