EAST PEORIA, Ill. -- Behind freshman Christiana Shorter's 13 first-half points, the Missouri State Lady Bears took a 36-24 lead over the Bradley Braves into halftime Saturday afternoon at Lorene Ramsey Gym. The Lady Bears dominated the interior throughout the first 20 minutes, outscoring the Braves by a 16-2 margin in the paint while converting 14-of-32 (.438) field goal attempts.

Just as they did in Thursday's victory at UNI, the Lady Bears raced out to an early double-digit lead, connecting on seven of their first 10 field goal attempts of the contest. Shorter had the hot hand, scoring 11 of MSU's first 20 points over the game's first 10 minutes. Her back-to-back baskets put the Lady Bears up 20-10, and a Jaleshia Roberson three-pointer with 8:52 to go pushed the MSU lead to 13.

BU's Raisa Taylor momentarily brought the Braves to within nine on a three-pointer from the right wing with 4:06 left on the clock. But Roberson answered for MSU with her third triple of the period as the shot clock wound down to push the Lady Bear lead back to 12. Shorter would then score on a putback of her own miss at the 2:08 mark to give MSU its largest lead of the half at 32-18.

The Lady Bears' defense played a key role in the proceedings, forcing 14 BU turnovers and limiting the Braves to just .313 shooting.

Shorter pulled down seven boards to go along with her 13 points, and Roberson added nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range.