CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Missouri State Lady Bears knocked down 16-of-20 first-half free throw attempts to offset a 31 percent shooting effort from the floor and take a 36-32 lead over Southern Illinois into the halftime locker room Saturday at SIU Arena. Casey Garrison led MSU with 10 early points in the final regular-season contest for both clubs.

Missouri State didn’t waste any time in building an early nine-point lead, getting balanced contributions from six different players over the games first five minutes. After SIU’s Teri Oliver connected on a three-point attempt just 26 seconds into the game for the first points of the afternoon, MSU went on a 9-0 scoring run to build a five-point cushion. Christiana Shorter led the Lady Bears’ early onslaught with a pair of baskets, before Jasmine Malone and Jaleshia Roberson sank three-point field goals on back-to-back possessions.

But the lead would be short lived, as Oliver teamed up with Katrina Swingler to score 24 of SIU’s next 26 points to hand the Salukis the lead with just under seven minutes to play in the half.

After the Salukis claimed a 26-22 advantage, MSU would respond at the foul line, scoring 12 of its final 18 points of half at the stripe. Lacey Boshe would come off the bench to knock down 7-of-8 attempts from the line, while Garrison would go 4-of-4.

OIiver led all scorers with 16 points, while Swingler contributed 10.