SPRINGFIELD - Missouri State took Arkansas to the wire Wednesday evening, dropping a 59-50 decision to the visiting Southeastern Conference school at JQH Arena.
The Lady Bears (1-7) out-rebounded the sizable Razorbacks (7-2) by a 37-34 margin, and trailed by just five points with three minutes to play before the visitors closed it out at the foul line. Arkansas entered the game ranked eighth nationally rebounding margin at plus-14 per game.
Missouri State led 7-0 just 2:28 into the game on
Hillary Chvatal's first career 3-pointer, and Arkansas quickly answered with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes. The Lady Bears led 14-11 on a
Lexi Hughes 3-pointer at the 12:38 mark, but MSU did not score again for more than seven minutes until a
Kenzie Williams bucket cut the Arkansas lead to 18-16 with 5:08 on the clock.
Arkansas extended its run to 12-2 thanks to five points from Jessica Jackson for a 23-16 lead with 3:59 to play, and Hughes hit her second trey of the half with 1:18 remaining for the 26-24 halftime score.
The Razorbacks opened the second half on an 8-0 run to lead 34-24 before the first media timeout, and maintained their lead between 7-11 points for the next seven minutes before scoring to go ahead 46-33 with 8:51 to play.
The Lady Bears began to chip away, cutting the Arkansas lead to single digits at 48-39 on
Aubrey Buckley's 3-pointer with 6:19 left, and again at 50-41 on a Chvatal jumper with 5:37 remaining.
Audrey Holt followed with a layup and two free throws for a 50-45 deficit and 3:56 on the clock, and
Riley Israel's jumper pulled MSU to 52-47 just 29 seconds later. Missouri State missed its next five field goals after that, not hitting again from the field until Williams scored with 32.7 seconds remaining for a 57-50 deficit.
Williams led the Lady Bears with 15 points along with six rebounds and four assists, while Chvatal added 11 points and seven boards. MSU shot 33.9 percent from the floor, but turned 15 offensive rebounds into 13 points and made 6-of-13 shots from beyond the arc.
Arkansas connected on 23 of its 51 shots (.451) and matched MSU's 3-point shooting. Each team had 12 turnovers and six steals.
The Lady Bears host IUPUI (2-6) at 2 p.m. Sunday.
