PEORIA, Ill. --  Despite a slow start on the offensive end and 12 turnovers, the Missouri State Lady Bears took a 31-22 lead over the Bradley Braves into halftime Saturday evening at the Renaissance Coliseum. The Lady Bear defense limited the Braves to just 9-of-36 (.250) shooting, and Jaleshia Roberson totaled 12 points lead the MSU charge.
 
The Lady Bears got the job done over the first 20 minutes by hitting on 6-of-14 (.429) tries from behind the three-point arc, led by Roberson’s 4-of-8 effort. Kendra Roberts also turned in a strong opening period, connecting on 4-of-6 field goal attempts to match her career high of nine points.

Both offenses struggled at the onset of the contest, however, combining to go just 4-of -26 over the first eight-and-a-half minutes. Missouri State finally gained an advantage midway through the opening half when Roberts scored on back-to-back possessions to make it a 10-5  game.

After BU tallied five of the next seven points, Roberson knocked down the second of her four first-half three-point field goals at the 10:06 mark to push the Lady Bear advantage back to five. MSU would heat things up from the perimeter late in the half, as Roberts and Roberson would combine to can three straight shots from beyond the arc over a two-and-a-half minute span to stretch the lead to 11 points with just over four minutes to play.

Behind a pair of Leah Kassing field goals, Bradley would post five unanswered points to slice the deficit to 28-22 over the ensuing three minutes. But Roberson would come up big again to answer the Braves’ challenge, hitting one more time from long distance with just 48 seconds left on the clock to send MSU into the break with a nine-point cushion.