The Lindenwood women's basketball team fell to No. 9 Missouri Western on Thursday night in St. Joseph, Mo. by a final of 93-50.
 
Lindenwood quickly fell behind after Missouri Western took a 7-2 lead in just over two minutes into the game.  Head Coach Tony Francis called a timeout to calm the Lady Lions down and halt the momentum gained by the Griffons.  The stoppage of play resulted in consecutive buckets by Jenny Rocha and CeCe Rapp to pull the Lady Lions within one.  Missouri Western smothered Lindenwood on the defensive end and forced seven turnovers with just over four minutes to go in the first quarter.
 
The Griffons extended its lead to 17-8 after a fast pace showed to be too much for the Lady Lions early in the game.  A three-pointer by the Griffons put the Lady Lions down by 12 points, but Kassidy Gengenbacher hit a layup to get the offense going again.  Charisse Williams picked up a steal and a bucket the close the gap, but Missouri Western went quickly down the court to keep a significant lead.  Missouri Western closed out the first quarter with a 24-13 lead with 10 points off of turnovers, and 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc.
 
Rapp started the second quarter strong for the Lady Lions with four points to pull Lindenwood within nine points.  Both teams traded buckets for the following few minutes and Kylie Ferguson drained a three-pointer to make it a 32-23 ball game.  With under four minutes to go in the half, Rocha picked up a steal and proceeded to lay it up as she got fouled to get the bonus shot.  After the made free throw, the Lady Lions were down by 10 points.  Missouri Western came back down and made just one free throw on two attempts, and Rocha hit a jumper as the shot clock expired to pull Lindenwood within nine points.
 
Lindenwood struggled to close out the half on a high note and allowed five points in five seconds to give Missouri Western a bigger lead, and a halftime score of 46-32.  The Lady Lions closed out the half shooting over 54 percent from the field, but the Griffons were on fire by shooting over 61 percent.  Lindenwood turned the ball over 19 times in the first half, while 12 of the turnovers were steals caused by the Griffons, resulting in 23 points for Missouri Western.  Gengenbacher, Rapp, and Rocha each had eight points at the break.
 
The second half began and Missouri Western immediately tacked on points to its lead with six-straight points in the first 1:30 of the third quarter.  The Griffons continued to go on an 11-1 run in the opening five minutes of the second half.  The Lady Lions had a frustrating third quarter as they scored just 10 points as opposed to 20 for the Griffons.  Rocha hit a layup with just over 30 seconds remaining to tally her 1,000th career point.  Rapp knocked down back-to-back free throws at the end of the third quarter to make it a 66-42 ballgame.
 
Missouri Western rolled through the fourth quarter to a 93-50 win for its 20th win of the season and 14th in conference play.  The Lady Lions had three players in double-digits, while Vanessa Zailo grabbed just under 10 rebounds.  Rocha finished with 13 points, while Gengenbacher scored 10 points, and Rapp put up 10 points.  Coach Francis noted that his team did not have the same energy level as the Griffons, and hopes his team can learn from the experience.
 
"Missouri Western played like a No. 9 team that is fighting to get home court advantage in the Central Regional Tournament," Francis continued, "we didn't respond with the same type of urgency."  Francis said, "I'm excited to see how we respond," he added, "that will let me know how well we learn valuable lessons as students of the game."
 
Lindenwood falls to 7-15 on the season and 3-13 in the MIAA.  The Lady Lions will head to Maryville, Mo. on Saturday to take on Northwest Missouri State for a 1:30 p.m. tipoff.