Jennies fall to SBU, 75-52

               The University of Central Missouri Jennies basketball team lost its final home game of the season to Southwest Baptist, 75-52 on Wednesday night at the Multipurpose Building. The loss snapped the Jens five game home winning streak and dropped them into a fifth place tie with SBU.
            The Bearcats (15-11, 7-10 MIAA) raced out to an early 13-6 lead not quite eight minutes into the game behind seven points from Livia Brito and Erika Souza. The Jennies (14-12, 7-10 MIAA) battled back with an 8-0 run of their own to take their last lead of the night at 14-13. From there it was all SBU as it heated up in the final eight minutes to head into the locker room up 31-21 at the break. Southwest Baptist was 13-of-36 (36 percent) from the floor, hitting 8-of-16 in the final eight minutes of the half. Central Missouri struggled to put the ball in the basket knocking down only 31 percent (8-of-26) in the opening period.
            The Bearcats picked up right where they left off in the second stanza by knocking down eight of their first nine shots to extend their lead to 53-39 with more than 12 minutes remaining. The Jens could get no closer the rest of the night as SBU missed only seven shots in the second frame (68 percent). The turnover bug bit UCM again as it threw it away 24 times in the game, leading to 22 Bearcat points.
            Kim Battle and Meagan Schoenfeld were the only Jennies in double figures with 15 and 10 respectively. Rachel Graves led three Bearcats in double digits with 17. Brito and Amber Wheeler added 15 apiece.