SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Sparked by 21 straight points from the combination of Casey Garrison and Christiana Shorter, the Missouri State Lady Bears outscored Wichita State 23-0 over an eight-minute stretch spanning both halves en route to a 71-41 Missouri Valley Conference victory Friday evening at JQH Arena.  The win, which concluded a 3-0 home stand for the Lady Bears, extended MSU’s home conference win streak to nine games and snapped a four-game skid in its series with Shockers.

Shorter and Garrison did the heavy lifting on the offensive end, combining for 43 points on the night, while the Missouri State defense forced eight straight Wichita State misses from the floor and nine turnovers during the game’s critical stretch. Kendra Roberts also came up big for the Lady Bears, contributing a career-high 15 points, while matching another personal best with six boards.

After going just 1-for-9 from the floor in the opening half, Garrison combined with Shorter to go 7-of-8 from the field and 6-of-6 from the foul line to tally the first 21 points of MSU’s decisive run. Garrison drilled her first four shots of the second period—including the Lady Bears’ lone three-point field goal of the night—to help stretch the MSU lead to 24 in the opening minutes of the stanza.

MSU (15-4, 6-1 MVC) scored six unanswered points over the final 52 seconds of the first half to start the offensive bonanza and head into the break with a 30-23 lead. After the Lady Bears took a 22-15 lead on a Roberts drive to the basket with 4:40 to play, Wichita State (9-9, 3-4 MVC) bounced back by outscoring MSU 8-2 to pull to within 24-23.

The Lady Bears had the last laugh in the half, however, as Shorter scored on back-to-back possessions and Garrison sank two free throws with less than one second left on the clock to close out the first-half scoring.

That would prove to be just the tip of the iceberg, as Missouri State unleashed an offensive and defensive blitzkrieg on the Shockers to open the second half. MSU came out of the break on fire, scoring the first 17 points of the second half to stretch its lead to 47-23 less than seven minutes into the period. After Shorter converted a pair of free throws on MSU’s first possession of the half, scoring on four of the next five Lady Bear possessions to push the margin to 18 points. Shorter hit two more foul shots to make it a 43-23 ball game, before Garrison connected for her fifth field goal of the half, and Jasmine Malone scored in the paint to complete the run.

Meanwhile, the Lady Bear defense continued to put the clamps down on Wichita State, forcing the Shockers to misfire on their first seven field goal tries of the half. Jessica Diamond finally ended the drought with a jumper at the 13:13 mark, but the damage to WSU’s chances for a fifth-straight win over the Lady Bears was complete. Missouri State wouldn’t see its lead dip below 19 the rest of the way and led by as many as 31 in the closing minutes.

The Lady Bears overcame a slow start from the field by converting 8-of-9 (.889) free throw attempts, including a 4-for-4 effort by Garrison that extended the junior’s school-record streak of consecutive makes from the line to 37 in-a-row.

The wide margin of victory certainly could not have been predicted from watching the early stages of the contest. Neither club broke from the gate with much momentum, as the two teams combined to go just 6-for-28 from the floor over the first eight minutes of the game. Tia Mays’s two free throws at the 12:45 mark gave MSU its first lead of the night at 8-7, but the Shockers came right back with a 5-0 spurt to claim a four-point lead with 10:33 to go.

MSU responded with a 10-0 run over a three-minute, 28-second span to take the lead for good and build an 18-12 advantage. The Lady Bears would push their advantage to seven points, before Wichita State would mount its last serious offensive charge of the night in the last four minutes of the half.

From that point, however, the MSU defense would limit the Shockers to just six field goals while forcing 17 turnovers. For the game, the Shockers shot just .296 (16-of-54) from the field, marking the eighth time in 19 outings this season the Lady Bears have held an opponent under 30 percent.

Garrison led all scorers with a 22-point effort, and Shorter posted her fifth double-double of the season with a 21-point, 14-rebound performance.

Next up, the Lady Bears begin a two-game road swing Thursday with a 7:05 p.m. game against Creighton in Omaha, Neb.

 -MSU-