Jennies battle, but fall to Lady Blues, 63-53

                The University of Central Missouri Jennies gave it their best shot against the No. 6 Lady Blues of Washburn on Saturday night, getting the margin to four with under a minute to play, but eventually dropped a 63-53 decision.
            Since Missouri Southern defeated Missouri Western Saturday as well, the Jennies will go into the MIAA Tournament as the No. 6 seed and face Emporia State at 8:15 p.m. on Friday.
            The Lady Blues (24-3, 15-3 MIAA) jumped out early in the outing, forcing the Jennies into 13 first half turnovers and only 36 percent from the floor. UCM (14-13, 7-11 MIAA) kept in it with rebounding and solid work on defense as well though, forcing WU to only 36 percent in the half. 10 points apiece by Brooke Ubelaker and Jessica Aebi helped Washburn to a 27-21 advantage going into the break, while the Jennies had no player with more than four points. Jojuana Jones pulled down five boards and had a couple buckets for UCM in her first career MIAA start.
            The Jennies stayed within striking distance early in the second stanza but the Lady Blues made their run at the 14:27 mark, getting the lead to as much as 14. Just when it looked as if WU would walk away with it, the Jennies showed they had some fight, cutting it to 49-43 with just over five minutes to play on an Ashley Millham lay-up. The Lady Blues moved it back to 10 on a couple occasions but the Jens kept competing. Two free throws by Jones cut it to four with 48 seconds left but WU hit all six of its free throw attempts down the stretch to seal the win.
            Jones finished with a career-high 15 and 10 rebounds to lead the Jennies while Millham knocked in 12 for the night. Ubelaker finished her senior night by tallying 20 points and Aebi finished with 16 for Washburn.
            The Jennies finished in a three way tie for fifth in the MIAA with Missouri Southern and Southwest Baptist, but went into the conference tournament with the six seed because of tiebreaker rules.