The Lindenwood women's basketball team fell 71-68 to Missouri Southern on Saturday afternoon in Hyland Arena.
 
Senior Jenny Rocha played in her 100th career game today and she made it count.  Rocha added her name to the most career free throws made list on her third make of the day.  Rocha is now in 10th place with 225 career makes at the charity strip.  Jenny was 8-for-8 from the line and tallied 18 points with five assists.  Kassidy Gengenbacher put up 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting, and grabbed four rebounds.
 
The Lady Lions quickly fell behind 6-0 to Missouri Southern and struggled to find offense.  Gengenbacher hit a three-pointer and Bri Wilber knocked down two free throws to tie the game at 7-7.  Lindenwood was held scoreless for nearly two minutes later in the quarter and was playing from an 18-11 deficit.  Gengenbacher nailed her second and final three-pointer of the game to pull Lindenwood within four points, but Missouri Southern added two more points near the end of the quarter to take a 20-14 lead. 
 
In the second quarter, the Lady Lions struggled to produce points.  Vanessa Zailo scored four points, while Jerricah Butler hit one free throw to give Lindenwood just five points in the first five minutes of the second quarter.  Lindenwood ended the half with 10 points in the final five minutes including a Gengenbacher layup as time expired.  The Lady Lions outscored Missouri Southern in the paint 18-8, but could not get much offense from the starting five as just Gengenbacher and Rocha had a combined 16 points at the break.  Lindenwood was 3-for-5 from the line, while Missouri Southern was 9-for-11 from the stripe.  Freshman, CeCe Rapp had a solid first half with six points and two rebounds, but the Lady Lions still trailed 36-29.
 
Missouri Southern opened the second half with a quick layup to extend the lead, but Charisse Williams drained a three-pointer to pull the Lady Lions within six points.  Lindenwood was scoreless for two minutes, until Kylie Ferguson hit a three-pointer to keep the deficit to just seven.  The three-pointer sparked the Lady Lions to go on a strong run to pull within three points with just under five minutes to go in the third quarter.  Missouri Southern went back up by five but a Gengenbacher layup, and two free throws by Beth Maenpaa pull Lindenwood within one.  Just over thirty second later, Rocha knocked down back-to-back free throws to give the Lady Lions a one-point lead.  Lindenwood, however, could not hold tight of the lead and fell behind 50-45 at the end of the third quarter.
 
Ferguson opened up the final quarter of play with a big three-pointer to make it a 50-48 ball game.  Missouri Southern continued to hold a small lead by making 14-of-22 free throws.  Rocha tossed up a three-pointer at the buzzer, but the game-tying attempt fell short as the Lady Lions lost 71-68.  The Lady Lions could not string together multiple buckets along with consecutive defensive stops.  Lindenwood shot 23-of-26 from the free throw line, and hit 5-of-13 three-pointers.
 
Lindenwood is 7-12 on the year and 3-10 in the MIAA after the close loss.  The Lady Lions will hit the road for a four-game trip that will start in Tahlequah, Okla. on Thursday against Northeastern State at 5:30 p.m.