Game 5 | Missouri Western at Lincoln
Thursday, December 9
5:30 p.m. | Jefferson City, Mo.

Griffon Sports Network
680 AM | 95.3 FM | 680kfeq.com/live-stream, opens in new tab
Broadcast Team
Tommy Rezac (@TommyKFEQ)
Danielle Sachse (@dsoxyy)

Broadcast - themiaanetwork.com/mwsugriffons, opens in new tab
Live Stats - lubluetigers.com/sidearmstats/wbball/, opens in new tab

The Coaches
Candi Whitaker
3rd Season | 33-24 (.579)

Drea Mize
2nd Season | 6-23 (.207)

Thursday’s contest will be the 45th meeting between the teams, and Missouri Western owns a dominant 39-5 record in the series. The last win for Lincoln was a 73-62 triumph in Jefferson City, on Feb. 22, 2018. MWSU has won six straight and 13 of the last 14 games in the series, including three straight road wins.

Lincoln has seen a lot of ups and downs through the early part of the season, with big wins (90-67 vs. Univ. of Ark.-Monticello, 97-20 vs. D-III school Blackburn) and big losses (82-48 at UIS, 71-46 at Central Missouri) sprinkled across its schedule. Le’Yanna McGinnis leads Lincoln with 11.7 points in her seven appearances, but the offense is evenly spread as every player that has seen time for the Blue Tigers on the year has made at least three field goals. Lincoln has outscored its opponents 69.3-65.7, although that average is inflated somewhat by the outlier result against Blackburn - removing that contest has a 12.2-point impact on LU’s scoring margin, dropping it from a +3.6 to a -8.6 (64.7-73.3).

As a team, the Blue Tigers shoot 40.7 percent (160-442) from the floor and 26.4 percent (32-121) from long range and allow opponents to connect at a 43.1 percent (169-392) and 34.4 percent (45-131) pace respectively. Lincoln has been to the free throw line more often, however, making 93 of 141 (66.0%) freebies to counter a 77-115 (67.0%) pace from its opponents. They’ve recorded 85 steals on the season, but again the outlier result against Blackburn has a huge impact, as Lincoln hasn’t hit double digits in the steal column (8,9,9,5) since swiping 23 against the D-III foe, which was inactive for the 2020-21 season following a 5-19 record in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.
 

A career-high 22 points from Brionna Budgetts powered Missouri Western to a 79-61 win over Northeastern State on Dec. 4. Jordan Cunningham added 10 points and a game-high five assists as the Griffons moved to 6-0 (2-0 MIAA) on the season, continuing their unbeaten start.

After two minutes reminiscent of the second quarter against Rogers State - Missouri Western opened 0-2 from the floor and Northeastern State shot 0-3 - the Griffons erupted for an 18-3 run over the next five minutes to take control of the contest. MWSU went 8-12 from the floor and 2-2 from the free throw line over the stretch, and finished the first quarter 9-18 (50.0%) for a 20-10 lead.

The Griffons came out of a 37-26 halftime lead energized on both ends of the court, as Budgetts had seven of MWSU’s 24 points in the third and the defense held Northeastern State to 6-16 (37.5%) shooting and just 15 points.

Budgetts continued her hot streak into the fourth quarter, with back-to-back triples in response to Riverhawks layups sparked the Griffons on a 10-4 run, giving the home team its biggest lead of the night at 26 points, 71-45.

The Griffons hit a cold spell over the next few minutes, going from the 5:32 mark to the 2:41 mark without scoring a point, but Northeastern wasn’t able to capitalize. The Riverhawks managed just nine points over the stretch before a Jordan Cunningham free throw snapped the Griffons out of their funk.

The Missouri Western women’s basketball team stopped its seven-game losing streak with an 84-72 win at Lincoln.  The Griffons improve to 3-8 in 2020-21, while the Blue Tigers fall to 1-13.

After Lincoln took a 1-0 lead on their second possession of the game, MWSU went on a 20-4 run on 8-of-10 shooting to take control of the game and they led 30-10 after one quarter.  That was the highest scoring quarter of the season for the Griffons and they went on to lead 44-27 at halftime.

Missouri Western put the game away early in the third quarter as they used a 9-0 run to start the half and built a 26-point lead, 53-27.  The Griffs led 70-48 at the end of the third quarter and then had to hold off a Lincoln rally in the fourth.  The Blue Tigers forced 27 Western turnovers and LU pulled to within 10 points, 80-70, but that was as close as they’d get.

Logan Hughes scored a career-high 20 points and added a career-high eight rebounds.  Mychaell Gray added a career-high 14 points and tied a career-high with five steals.  Asia McCoy had 13 points and Camille Evans recorded her second double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Two other Griffons had career highs as Kameron Freemyer scored six points and Jordan Cunningham added six rebounds.

Missouri Western shot over 50 percent for the first time this season as the finished 50.8% (31-of-61) from the field and they outrebounded LU 44-35.  The Griffons also turned the Blue Tigers over 24 times.

Missouri Western returned to the Top 25 for the first time since the 2016-17 season this week, debuting at #20 in the D2SIDA Women’s Basketball Media Poll. After receiving three votes in the initial installment of the D2SIDA Central Region rankings, the Griffons continued to impress, debuting at no. 10 on Nov. 22 and moving up to no. 3 in the region in the Dec. 6 rankings. MWSU has made the most of a very challenging non-conference schedule, going 4-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season against an entirely NCAA Division II-based schedule.

Although Missouri Western holds a stout +11.8 reb/gm margin over its opponents, the Griffons have seen surprisingly few in-game double-doubles on the year, with two players accounting for four standout performances.

To be fair, though, Connie Clarke is averaging a double-double on the year, with 12.8 pts and 11.5 reb per game.

Connie Clarke
- vs. Southeastern Okla. (13 Nov.) - 19 pts, 10 reb.
- vs. Illinois-Springfield (22 Nov.) - 12 pts, 15 reb.
- vs. Rogers State (2 Dec.) - 21 pts, 12 reb.

Corbyn Cunningham
- vs. Illinois-Springfield (22 Nov.) - 21 pts, 10 reb.

The Griffons have been held below 40 rebounds in a game only once this season, a 35-rebound (12 off, 23 def) performance against Southeastern Oklahoma State on Nov. 13. Missouri Western averages 42.7 boards per game and holds its opponents to just 30.8, and has better than double the overall offensive rebounds on the year, 88 to 41.
The Griffons have twice come close to exactly balancing the scales, against Univ. of Sioux Falls (21 off, 25 def) and against Rogers State (23 off, 26 def).
MWSU leads the league in rebounding margin, with a gap of 11.83 to a +9.86 gap for Fort Hays State and an +8.25 margin for Nebraska-Kearney.

Surprisingly, the Griffons don’t hold either of the top breakdown spots, as they are second to Lincoln in offensive rebounds (LU 15.29, MWSU 14.67) and third behind Nebraska-Kearney (29.50) and Fort Hays State (28.29) on the defensive side, and tied for third with Emporia State and Central Missouri with an average of 28.00.

Missouri Western leads the league in turnover margin, averaging 4.33 fewer turnovers than its opponents on the year, and ranks second in steals behind Lincoln with 10.83.