Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball teams went 4-1 on Saturday, with the lone loss coming to the Sycamores at Indiana State, falling to nationally-ranked Michigan State at home in front of over 4,400 fans at the Hulman Center.  Bradley, Evansville, Southern Illinois and Wichita State earned victories.

Bradley 68, Toledo 47
Junior forward Monica Rogers (Forsyth, Ill./St. Teresa/Hampton) scored seven of her team-high 15 points during a 17-2 second-half BU run to help the Bradley women’s basketball to a 68-47 victory over Toledo Saturday afternoon at Robertson Memorial Field House.  Rogers was one of three players in double figures for the Braves.

Bradley (4-5 overall) led from start to finish and built a 26-13 first-half lead behind nine points from sophomore Jenny Van Kirk (Waconia, Minn./Waconia).  Sophomore guard Skye Johnson (Olympia Fields, Ill./Marian Catholic) put the Braves ahead 26-13 with a layup with 7:12 left in the first half. 

The Braves went cold the final seven minutes of the half, however, going 1-for-8 from the field and committing three turnovers down the stretch.  Olivia Terry had hit just one three-pointer in Toledo’s first six games of the season, but connected on three trey’s in the final five minutes of the half to help spark a 15-5 Toledo run to close the half as the teams went into the break with Bradley clinging to a 31-28 lead.

Toledo (3-4 overall) managed to stay within striking distance in the early moments of the second half, trailing 45-40 with 11:10 remaining before the Braves seized momentum with a 17-2 run.  Junior Kelly Krumwiede (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West) pulled down an offensive board and made a layup with 10:13 to play to start the run.  Fouled on the layup, Krumwiede missed a chance at a three-point play by missing a free throw attempt but hauled down another offensive board on the miss.  Rogers split a pair of free throws but rebounded the missed second free throw attempt and capped off what proved to be a five-point Bradley possession with a layup with 10:06 on the clock.

Rogers added another layup with 9:23 to play after a Toledo miss to put Bradley ahead 52-40.  The Braves followed up a Toledo basket with 10 consecutive points, highlighted by five points by freshman Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) as the Braves extended their lead to 62-42 with under five minutes to play.  Bradley limited Toledo to 19 second-half points and the Braves outrebounded the Rockets 31-8 in the second half en route to the 68-47 victory.

The win gives Bradley back-to-back wins for the first time this season and marked the first time the Braves have won consecutive games by 20 or points since December 2004.  Rogers finished with team highs of 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench.  Van Kirk added 11 points, five boards and four assists, while Johnson was also in double figures with 10 points in 25 minutes of play.  Krumwiede nearly added a double-double, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds. 

Senior Rachel Merriman (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame/Illinois Central) dished out eight assists and came away with five steals.  Fellow senior Devyn Flanagan (Riverton, Ill./Riverton) was limited to six points, but grabbed a season-best nine boards and moved into 22nd on the Braves career scoring list, passing Erika Grogg.

Bradley shot 45.5 percent from the field and dominated Toledo down low.  The Braves held a 38-24 edge in points in the paint and outrebounded the Rockets, which came into the game averaging 40 rebounds per game, by a 52-26 margin. 

Toledo hit 6-of-13 shots to open the second half, but went 3-for-16 over the final 11 minutes of play and finished the game shooting 34.5 percent from the field.  The Rockets were 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in the second half and finished the game 2-for-10 from the free throw line.  Terry led all scorers with a season-high 17 points off the bench, hitting 5-of-7 three-point attempts.  Allie Clifton added 14 points.

Evansville 70, Ball State 55
Sparked by career nights by junior guards Ashley Austin and Kate Batey, the University of Evansville women’s basketball team cruised past the visiting Ball State University Cardinals, 70-55, Saturday night at Roberts Stadium in Evansville.

Austin led a pack of four Purple Aces in double-figures with a career-high 18 points, while Batey chipped in a career-best seven points in seven minutes of action.  After the Evansville offense started out extremely slow, the two juniors kick-started a 43-14 UE run which turned a nine-point Ball State lead into an Evansville blow out.

The Cardinals opened the game on a 13-2 run, and would hold a 20-11 lead with 8:19 to play in the first half before the Purple Aces started to chip away.  A lay-up by junior forward Shannon Novosel with 6:30 to play trimmed the deficit back to seven points, 20-13.  Four-straight free throws by Austin and senior guard Rebekah Parker would cut the deficit back to just 20-17 with 5:23 to play, before the offense would finally arrive.

Mired in a 4-for-26 start offensively, Evansville worked a lay-up inside by Austin with 4:19 left before the half to cut the Ball State lead back to one point, 20-19.  Batey would then ignite the offense with back-to-back baskets, including a three-pointer with 3:14 to play which gave UE the lead for good.  Evansville would finish the half hitting seven of its last nine shots to take a 34-26 lead into the halftime locker room.

The hot shooting would continue in the second half, as the Purple Aces opened the half hitting five of its first six shots after halftime to grab a 47-31 lead with 15:07 to play on a lay-up by junior forward Robyn Jennings.  The lead would grow to as much as 23 points in the second half, before the Purple Aces would settle for the 15-point victory.

Austin notched career-highs with 18 points and five rebounds to lead UE, while shooting 7-for-15 from the field.  Novosel also recorded her second double-double of the season with 14 points and a career-best 14 rebounds, while Parker and Jennings chipped in 10 points apiece.  Lisa Rusche paced Ball State with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

With the victory, Evansville improves to 5-4 on the season.  Ball State, meanwhile, falls to 3-7. 

No. 23 Michigan StTae 83, Indiana State 58
Indiana State stood toe-to-toe with No. 23 Michigan State for the better part of Saturday afternoon’s (Dec. 8) women’s college basketball game, but the Sycamores hit just 27.4% of their shots as they fell 83-58 to the Spartans in front of 4,492 fans at Hulman Center.

ISU dropped to 5-3 on the season, while Michigan State improved to 7-2.

The Sycamores trailed just 36-29 at the half, despite hitting only 25% of their shots. The Spartans’ halftime advantage was nearly trimmed to just four points as Leah Phillips’ mid-court shot at the buzzer rimmed in and out of the basket. Phillips posted all of her game-high 12 points in the first half.

Indiana State trimmed the Michigan State lead down to 45-38 on a basket by Kara Schilli with 15:54 left in the game, but the Spartans went on a 7-0 run to push the lead out to 52-38 at the 13:52 mark. The margin reached a high of 28 points at 83-55 with 41 seconds on the clock.
Freshman Heather Seyfred connected on a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left for the final margin of 83-58.

In her first collegiate start, sophomore Maria Olsthoorn posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Olsthoorn hit 7-of-8 free throws in the game as she missed just one charity toss for the first time this season. Olsthoorn hit her first 23 free throws on the season, including a mark of 11-of-11 in the season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Joining Phillips and Olsthoorn in double figures scoring was Annie Bankhead, who scored 11 points. The loss to Michigan State marks the first time this season that Indiana State was not victorious when putting at least three players in double figures scoring.

For the game, Indiana State mustered just a 27.4% shooting effort, while the Spartans were able to counter with a 49.3% mark from the field. Leading the way for Michigan State was the play of 6-9 sophomore center Allyssa DeHaan, who connected on 9-of-17 shots from the field and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line for a game-high 24 points.

The Sycamores were attempting to defeat two nationally-ranked opponents in the same season with a win over Michigan State. On November 14, Indiana State downed No. 17 Vanderbilt by a score of 77-72 in overtime.

Southern Illinois Central Arkansas
The Southern Illinois women's basketball team opened the game on a 26-4 run in the first nine and half minutes of play, cruising on to an 88-67 victory over Central Arkansas Saturday night in SIU Arena.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Salukis (2-5), giving them their second victory of the season. The Sugar Bears fell to 2-6 on the year.

Southern put five players in double-digit scoring for the first time this season, including Jayme Sweere and Jasmine Gibson who stepped up to lead the team with 21 points each.

Sweere added a team-high six boards, three assists and a steal, while Gibson grabbed five rebounds, dishing out two assists and a steal.

Erica Smith recorded a nice line with 11 points, four boards, three assists, one block and a game-high five steals for the Salukis.

Freshman Katrina Swingler had a breakout game, recording 13 points, adding five rebounds and three steals, all career-bests.

Fellow freshman Ellen Young connected for 11 points, two boards and two assists.

The Salukis recorded 27 of their points off of forced turnovers (21) from the Sugar Bears, recording just seven turnovers in the game themselves.

Wichita State 40, Tex.-Pan American 34
The Wichita State women's basketball team (4-5) used a 16-0 run and held UTPA (4-3) scoreless for the first 10-plus minutes of the second half as the Shockers picked up their fourth-straight home win of the season and sixth-straight non-conference home win inside Charles Koch Arena Saturday night with a 40-34 victory over the Lady Broncs.

Kiki Stephens led the Shockers with a game-high 15 points while the Shocker inside game was relentless as well, as both junior Marcy Sudbeck (9 points and 11 rebounds) and freshman Samamtha Smith (7 points and 8 rebounds) approached double-doubles on the evening, with both setting new career highs in rebounds. Junior guard Whitney Rice saw her first minutes since Nov. 22, while junior Frannie Vathauer added 5 points for the Shockers and had WSU's only 3-pointer on the night.

LeKeisha Gray led UTPA with 13 points, while adding 6 rebounds. UTPA's nationally-ranked 3-point shooting attack was limited to just a 15.8 percent effort (3-for-19) from the floor on the night.

The Shockers scored the first points of the game at the 16:58 mark with a Kiki Stephens jumper as the teams combined to go 0-for-8 from the floor over the first three minutes. An old fashioned three-point play by Stephens with 14:25 left gave WSU a 5-2 lead, sparking a mini 5-0 run before UTPA's Tamara Vaughn put in a layin in transition with 12:48 left to cut the Shocker advantage to 7-4.

A pair of Teshay Winfrey free throws with 10:47 left tied the game and an Aleeya Grigsby layin in transition gave UTPA a 9-7 lead with just under 10 minutes left in the first. Six more points in transition and a Tiona Wilson 3-pointer for UTPA extended the Lady Broncs lead to 25-12 with under two minutes left in the half, their biggest lead of the game to that point, capping a 19-5 run over the course of nine-plus minutes late in the half. A Frannie Vathauer 3-pointer with less than :30 seconds left ended a six-plus minute drought for the Shockers and fashioned the halftime score of 25-15 in favor of the Lady Broncs.

WSU shot just 24 percent from the floor in the first frame, but limited UTPA's high-power 3-point attack to just a 2-for-8 effort from long range in the half.

Stephens scored the first four points of the second frame, sparking a 6-0 half-opening run that brought the Shockers to within 25-21 by the 16-minute mark of regulation. A pair of Samantha Smith free throws with 14:25 left cut the deficit to just a basket at 25-23, and a Stephens basket with just under 13 minutes left tied the game at 25-25.

Marcy Sudbeck's baseline jumper with just under 12 minutes gave the Shockers their first lead of the half at 27-25, continuing a 12-0 run over the first eight-minutes of the half. WSU extended the run to 13-0 before UTPA scored its first points of the second on a La'Sahe Woodward jumper with 9:28 left and regained the lead with a LeKeisha Gray layin with 7:54 left to play, putting UTPA out front 29-28.

A Jacie Hoyt runner and a pair of Smith free throws regained the advantage for the Shockers, after Smith sank her sixth and seventh free throws of the night to give the Shockers a 32-29 edge with less than seven minutes to play. A Gray 3-pointer with 4:48 left tied the game for the fourth time on the night at 34-34, before a pair of Daria Frazier free throws gave WSU a 36-34 lead with just 3:18 left in regulation.

Stephens connected on a pair of free throws with 1:21 left to put the game on ice, giving WSU a 38-34 lead, one they would never relinquish as Sudbeck added the finishing touch with a layin with :33 seconds left, giving the Shockers their 40th point and the win.