Williams paces Lady Bears to first Valley win

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Missouri State shot a season-high 55.6 percent, led by seniors Kenzie Williams and Tyonna Snow combining for 39 points on 15-for-22 shooting, for a 73-51 victory over Illinois State Friday afternoon in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both schools at Redbird Arena.

Williams scored a season-high 23 points, connecting on 9-of-12 shots overall and 5-of-7 from 3-point range, while Snow had 16 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season, adding a career-high seven assists along with five steals and two blocks.

All 11 players scored for the Lady Bears (8-5, 1-0), who held ISU (2-10, 0-1) to 35.6 percent shooting.

The Lady Bears used three big scoring runs to open a comfortable halftime lead after trailing 8-6 six minutes into the contest. Snow kicked off the first with a driving layup followed by 3-pointers from Lexi Hughes and Williams and another bucket by Grace Vander Weide for a 16-8 advantage with 1:33 to play in the first

Illinois State needed only 55 seconds for a 7-0 run on either side of the quarter break to pull to 16-15, but Snow’s layup finished off a 7-0 MSU run at 28-17 with 3:37 left before half, and the senior added five more points during an 11-0 spurt to build a 39-21 advantage before the Redbirds scored in the waning seconds for a 39-23 margin at the break.

ISU sliced nine points off Missouri State’s lead less than four minutes into the second half, closing to 43-36 with 6:15 remaining. The Lady Bears scored the next five points to lead again by double-digits before taking a 53-43 advantage into the final period.

Williams buried her fifth trey of the game to put the Lady Bears ahead 58-43 with 8:40 left in the game, and MSU led by at least 12 points for the rest of the contest.

Missouri State owned a 35-30 rebounding margin, blocked a season-high seven shots and swiped 13 steals to help force 19 ISU turnovers. Williams added five rebounds and three steals, while Liza Fruendt scored nine points and Hughes had eight.

MSU concludes its four-game road swing Sunday at 1 p.m. at Indiana State (4-7).

Injury Note:

Missouri State will likely be without the services of forward Aubrey Buckley for the remainder of the season after the sophomore was diagnosed this week with a stress fracture in her right hip.

“This is a disappointing loss for our team,” said head coach Kellie Harper. “Aubrey is a tough, physical defender who does a lot of things to make our team better on both ends of the court."

The Springfield native started 11 of the Lady Bears’ first 12 games this season, averaging 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in just under 25 minutes per game.

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