KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After debuting at no. 10 in the D2SIDA Regional Rankings, Missouri Western delivered a dominant performance en route to an 82-72 win over Illinois Springfield on Monday night. Corbyn Cunningham was one of five Griffons in double figures, adding 10 rebounds to her 21 points for her first double-double of the year.  Connie Clarke notched her third consecutive double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds, as MWSU moved to 4-0 for the first time since 2015-16.

The first quarter was every bit the back-and-forth battle expected from a pair of unbeaten teams. Missouri Western opened a four-point lead in the early going, with the Prairie Stars answering with a three-pointer by Liz Uhl and a layup by Olivia Travis to take a 10-8 lead.

Brionna Budgetts fired right back with a triple in transition off a nice pass from Jordan Cunningham, and the teams swapped the lead back and forth for the next five minutes. Corbyn Cunningham pulled the Griffons level at 18-18 with 2:18 to play, then rejected a shot in the lane by Lauren Ladowski, part of a defensive stop that saw MWSU force three misses by UIS.

Jaelyn Haggard swished a three on the next possession for the Griffons, and MWSU never trailed again. Missouri Western extended its lead to 43-36 at halftime and spent the better part of the third quarter with a single-digit lead.

In addition to the production from the starting five, Missouri Western also enjoyed solid contributions from the bench, none bigger than Trinity Knapp's work to close out the quarter. After turning away a jumper on the baseline from Jalyn Harris, Knapp grabbed the rebound and sent an outlet pass to Haggard. The sophomore then knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the arc to put MWSU up 62-50.

The Griffons led by as many as 19 in the fourth quarter, but comfortably held off UIS for the double-digit win.

Missouri Western held the Prairie Stars to 43.1 percent shooting (25-58) on the night while hitting at a 48.5 percent (32-66) clip itself. The Griffons out-rebounded UIS 43-27, with a 13-5 edge on the offensive glass contributing to 13 second chance points for MWSU.

Rogers State is the next opponent for the Griffons, with the Hillcats visiting St. Joseph for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on Dec. 4.