SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Missouri State Lady Bears celebrated Fan Appreciation Night by giving the JQH Arena-record crowd of 6,049 all it could ask for Friday night in a 92-82 win over Drake. For the first time in over 18 years, three Lady Bears topped the 20-point plateau to help MSU post its best offensive output of the 2010-11 season.

Jaleshia Roberson came off the MSU bench with a 25-point performance that included four critical second-half three-pointers, as well as a season-high four steals. She received plenty of help from Casey Garrison, who combined with Roberson for 35 second-half points en route to a 25-point night herself. Jasmine Malone also came up big, registering a career-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.

The Lady Bears and Bulldogs came out of the gate firing and never truly let up, combining for a Missouri Valley Conference season-high 174 points. Both clubs shot an even 50 percent from three-point range and both hit nearly half of their field goal attempts overall.

Missouri State seized control for good with an 11-0 scoring run—all of it coming from Roberson and Malone—over a two-minute stretch early in the second half. After Garrison totaled eight points over the first five minutes of the half, Malone hit a runner in the lane to start MSU’s key run and make it a six-point contest. Roberson followed with back-to-back treys to stretch the lead to 12 before Malone struck again—this time with an old-fashioned three-point play—to push the margin to 65-50 with 12:28 to go.

Drake responded with four straight points from Rachael Hackbarth, but the Lady Bears answered with the long ball once again. Garrison touched nothing but net on a three from the right wing to give MSU a 14-point edge with 10:44 to play.

After Drake scored 15 of the next 21 points to slice the lead down to five with just over six minutes remaining on the clock, MSU found an answer in its junior triumvirate once again. Garrison would score on a drive to the basket, just ahead of two more Roberson threes that effectively sealed the outcome by pushing the lead back to double digits. In all, the trio would account for Missouri State’s last 20 points over the last seven-and-a-half minutes of the game, including 10 from Roberson.

Missouri State rallied late in the first half to take a 42-40 advantage into intermission, as  both teams were red-hot from the field, combining to go 34-of-64 (.531) in a half that featured seven ties and eight lead changes. MSU got off to a strong start by connecting on its first three attempts from the field to build a 7-2 lead less than one minute into the game. Christiana Shorter, who scored on a feed from Garrison just four seconds into the game, tallied MSU’s first four points, and Malone drained the first of her three first-half three-pointers with 19:11 left on the clock to hand the Lady Bears the early five-point lead.

Drake battled back, using a 6-0 spurt to seize its first lead of the night on a Stephanie Running putback of her own miss at the 14:40 mark.

The Lady Bears and, more specifically, Roberson, would respond with a 5-0 scoring run to match their largest lead of the half. The MSU junior rattled home a three from the right wing with 12:50 to play, then scored on a layup following a steal to make it a 22-17 ball game.

After Drake bounced back over the ensuing four minutes to ultimately knot the score at 27-27, the two clubs would blows for the remainder of the half. The Bulldogs took a two-point lead on a Kristin Turk jumper in the lane, before the Lady Bears reeled off five more unanswered points to claim a 32-29 lead.

DU would account for 11 of the next 15 points to take its biggest lead of the half at 40-36, capping the run on an Amber Wollschlager triple with just under two mintues to play.

But MSU would have the last laugh by registering the final six points of the period. Garrison hit a pair of shots in the paint, and Roberson converted two free throws with 35 seconds to go to account for the final margin.

The Bulldogs (14-13, 8-8 MVC), which hit 32-of-65 (.492) field goal tries on the night, got game highs of 27 points and 11 rebounds from Hackbarth, as well as 23 points from Turk, the Valley's scoring leader.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the Lady Bears’ offensive explosion, which came on the heels of a sub-standard five-game stretch in which they failed to reach the 70-point mark in any contest and shot just .377 as a team. MSU’s 34 field goals represented a season high, topping the 33 it converted in its first meeting with Drake on January 29, a 90-61 win for the Lady Bears.

Additionally, the triple 20-plus-point performance from Garrison, Malone and Roberson marked the first time MSU teammates topped the mark in the same game since January 23, 1993, when Tonya Baucom, Melody Howard and Secelia Winkfield accomplished the feat against Wichita State.

Up next, the Lady Bears (18-9, 9-6 MVC) will honor their two seniors when close out the home portion of the regular-season schedule with a 12:05 p.m. game Sunday (Feb. 27) against Creighton. The contest, which has been designated as Missouri State’s annual WBCA Pink Zone game, will be televised live on Fox Sports Midwest and the MVC Television Network.