SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Behind freshman Karly Buer's 10 first-half points and a strong inside effort, Missouri State took a 31-26 lead over visiting Louisiana Tech into intermission Saturday at JQH Arena. Buer went 4-of-8 from the field, and MSU outscored the Lady Techsters 18-8 in the paint to overcome the 15 first-half points of LA Tech's Adrienne Johnson.
MSU grabbed an early four-point lead, reeling off seven unanswered points after Louisiana Tech got a three-pointer from Whitney Jones for the first points of the contest. Buer hit a pair of jumpers to sandwich a Christiana Shorter free throw, and Tia Mays added a lay-in at the 16:17 mark to make it a 7-3 game.
Behind nine straight points from Johnson, LA Tech responded with a 17-7 spurt to take a 20-14 lead-its largest of the period- with just under eight minutes to play in the half.
Two big buckets from Lacey Boshe and Regan Soldner and a Buer three-point play drew MSU to within one, and Casey Garrison put the Lady Bears back on top moments later with a putback off of a Soldner miss. After drawing a foul and completing another MSU three-point play, Garrison's free throw gave the Lady Bears a 26-24 edge.
LA Tech's Jelena Vucinic hit a short jumper to knot the score, but Buer would score the final five points of the half. She drove the lane for a layup with 1:51 left, then canned MSU's first trey of the game with just 34 seconds to play to give the Lady Bears their biggest lead of the game.
MSU's bench also came up big in the first half, outscoring LTU's by an 11-4 margin. Soldner totaled eight rebounds to go along with four points, while Boshe also chipped in four points and a pair of steals.
