The Lindenwood women's basketball team nearly pulled off an upset over No. 16 Missouri Western, but fell 79-77 on Friday night in Hyland Arena.
 
The Lady Lions could not slow down the prolific talent in LaQuinta Jefferson who dropped 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting.  Lindenwood played a great game on Friday night as it had three players with double-digit points, and Vanessa Zailo grabbed 14 rebounds.
 
Kassidy Gengenbacher put the Lady Lions up right away with a layup and the free throw, then scored a fast-break bucket to give Lindenwood a 5-0 lead.  Kylie Ferguson helped extend the lead later in the quarter with a three-pointer.  Jenny Rocha pushed the Lady Lions to an eight-point lead with 5:31 remaining in the quarter.  The Lady Lions saw their lead diminish to just one, but led 21-20 at the conclusion of the first quarter of play.
 
Lindenwood lost the lead in the second quarter after Missouri Western scored on three-consecutive trips down the court.  The Griffons held a 44-38 lead at the half as both teams shot over 50% from the field.  Both teams were statistically even as it seemed the only discrepancy was in the 11 Lindenwood turnovers to seven for Missouri Western.  Gengenbacher had 12 points at the half and Zailo had six points with five rebounds.
 
The Lady Lions came out of the half with great energy.  Ferguson hit another three-pointer to help Lindenwood go on an 11-4 run resulting in a 49-48 lead.  The play went back-and-forth until the two-minute mark when the Griffons took charge.  Missouri Western took a lead and went up by as many as six points.  CeCe Rapp hit two free throws to pull within four as the third quarter came to an end with the Lady Lions down 65-61.
 
Lindenwood again showed its determination as it fought back to tie the game at 65-65 within the first minute of the fourth quarter.  The Griffons regained the lead and went up by four points before the Lady Lions made things interesting.  Jerricah Butler knocked down a free throw and Charisse Williams scored three points to tie the game at 71-71.
 
Ferguson put the Lady Lions up by two with back-to-back free throws, but much like the whole game, the Griffons tied the game at 73-73.  The Lindenwood bench was electric after Gengenbacher nailed a three-pointer to put the Lady Lions up 76-73 with just over four minutes to play.  The Lindenwood defense held Missouri Western scoreless until the 1:30 mark.  The Lady Lions could not score in the final 3:51 of the game and fell 79-77 to Missouri Western.
 
Gengenbacher finished with 18 points, while Rocha had 17 points, and Williams put up 16 points.  Rocha added four assists, two steals, and three rebounds to her stat totals.  Lindenwood shot 47.4 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from behind the three-point arc.
 
The loss will place Lindenwood at 6-4 overall and 2-2 in the MIAA.  The Lady Lions will play its final home game of a six-game stand on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Northwest Missouri in Hyland Arena.