The Lindenwood women's basketball team won its second straight game to start the season on Tuesday night. The Lady Lions dominated the first half but the Spartans did not go down easily. Lindenwood held on late for the 76-71 win in St. Charles.
Things started quickly for the home team, beginning the game on an 11-2 run. Lindenwood's offense was clicking on all cylinders in the first half pushing the lead to as many as 17. At the under 10 media timeout, the Lady Lions were shooting over 70 percent from the field. Lindenwood headed into the halftime break holding a 16 point advantage.
The Lady Lions started the second half off right where they left off in the first half. Lindenwood pushed the lead up to 19 with just over 18 minutes to play. But from that point on Missouri Baptist started to chip away at its deficit.
The Spartans went on a 10-0 run to cut the Lady Lions lead down to nine. Lindenwood did answer pushing its lead up to 15 with under 10 minutes to play but Missouri Baptist did not go away.
Missouri Baptist took its turn and scored the game's next 15 of 19 points to get within four with 4:56 to go in the game. After trading baskets, the Spartans got within three after
Morgan Johnson was called for a flagrant foul with 24 seconds to play.
The three points would be as close as the Spartans would get. The Lady Lions closed the game out from the free throw line.
Kassidy Gengenbacher would finish the game making four-of-four free throws and icing the win for Lindenwood.
Gengenbacher led the way for the Lady Lions scoring 23 points including a perfect 14-for-14 night from the free throw line.
Jenny Rocha was second on the team in scoring with 15 points while
Vanessa Zailo grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds.
Bri Wilber and
Beth Maenpaa also chipped in with their first double digit scoring games with 10 points each.
The Lady Lions shot 49 percent from the field and 80 percent from the firee throw line. Lindenwood dominated the glass outrebounding the Spartans 45-29.
Lindenwood improved its record to 2-0 on the season. The Lady Lions will head out on the road for the first time this season when they travel to Mississippi for a weekend tournament.
