Bolivar, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University women's basketball team stepped away from MIAA with a convincing 79-43 victory over Missouri S&T on Friday afternoon. With the victory, the Bearcats improve to 7-4 on the season.
The Bearcats opened up the game with back-to-back layups from Caylee Richardson and Alex Botkin to take an early 4-0 lead with 8:30 left in the first quarter. The Lady Miners came back to tie the contest up at 4-4 before an old fashioned three point play from Botkin and a layup from Megan Rosenbohm extended the SBU lead to 9-4 with 5:36 to go in the quarter. Missouri S&T continued to hang with Southwest Baptist, as the Bearcats led the Lady Miners 15-11 after the first quarter of play.
A Botkin three out of the break quickly extended the SBU lead to 18-11, fueling an 11-2 run to start the quarter as the Bearcats took their first double-digit lead of the game. SBU used six points from Mackenzie Skupa, and five from Botkin, to gain the lead. S&T was able to cut the lead back under 10 (28-20) with 5:46 left in the half, but the Bearcats used a 12-2 run to close out the half as SBU went into the break leading 40-22.
The second half started much like the first half ended, as Botkin picked up a steal in the first possession and took it all the way for a layup to increase SBU's lead to 20 at 42-22. The Bearcats continued to press, using baskets from Richardson, Botkin, Dilonna Johnson, and Ashlee Pitts to extend their lead to 30 (56-26) with 3:30 left in the third quarter. SBU continued to build their lead, as they took a 68-31 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the final quarter of action Pitts sunk a jumper followed by a three from Taylor Jackson to give SBU a 42 point advantage (73-31) with 7:26 remaining. An old-fashioned three-point play from Aliyah Isaac put SBU ahead by a game high 43 (76-33) with 4:42 to go, as SBU would cruise to a 79-43 victory.
Alex Botkin led the way for the Bearcats with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals in the victory. Aliyah Isaac was in double-figures off of the bench with 11 points, while Dilonna Johnson dished out a game high 7 assists in the win. As a team SBU shot 46.6% from the field, 27.3% from beyond the arc, and 91.7% from the free throw line while preventing Missouri S&T from connecting on any of their 12 three-point attempts.
SBU will return to MIAA action on Monday, January 4 when they travel to Central Missouri. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. from Warrensburg, Missouri.
