SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A stout defensive effort carried the Missouri State Lady Bears to a 27-17 halftime lead over visiting SIU Edwardsville Thursday evening at JQH Arena. Despite 13 turnovers from its offense, MSU limited the Cougars to just 18.2 percent shooting and outrebounded SIUE by a 31-17 margin over the game’s first 20 minutes.

Casey Garrison led a balanced Missouri State attack with nine points in the opening period, while Tia Mays coralled eight rebounds and blocked four shots for the Lady Bears. In all eight Lady Bears broke into the scoring column and 10 recorded at least one rebound in the half.

Missouri State used its defense to grab the lead early, holding the Cougars scoreless for the first five minutes of the contest. While SIUE was misfiring on its first 13 field goal attempts, Casey Garrison converted her first three tries from the floor to stake the Lady Bears to a 6-0 advantage.

After Melia Duncan connected on a short jumper in the lane for SIUE’s first points of the night with 14:55 to play in the half, MSU would score 11 of the next 13 points over the next five minutes to build its largest lead of the half at 17-4.

But Duncan would drain a three-pointer to kick-start the Cougar offense and open up an 11-2 run that would draw the visitors back to within four points with just over four minutes remaining on the clock.

Garrison would come up big again, converting an old-fashioned three-pointer after tracking down her own miss and drawing a foul at the 3:00 mark to push the MSU lead back to nine points. A Tia Mays layup with 1:10 left would account for the final points of the half, sending the Lady Bears into the break with a 10-point cushion.

MSU held SIUE to just 6-of-33 shooting from the field to help overcome a dismal showing of its own at the foul line. The Lady Bears connected on just 3-of-9 (.333) free throws in the half.