Tomorrow night, the Missouri Southern Women Basketball team will open its regular season, playing against the Northeastern (Okla.) State Lady Reds.

The Lady Reds will have only one game under their belt coming into the contest, standing 1-0 after besting the John Brown University Golden Eagles 61-43 Wednesday.

“I expect a disciplined, well-coached team to walk into the gym on Saturday,” said Lions head coach Maryann Mitts. “They are patient offensively, their playing is fundamentally sound. Early in the season, teams are usually not on the same page as you. Not this team.

“They are a NCA qualifying team; its very good competition for us.”

Last year, the Lions fell to the Lady Reds 56-47.

Tuesday, Southern will face the Central Methodist University Lady Eagles. The Lions and the Lady Eagles did not play each other last year.

“Our most important thing is to improve each game,” Mitts said. “We have to improve on our timing offensively. We need to improve on working together offensively; we need to have more patience offensively as well.

“We’re very rushed offensively and we need to slow down. Defensively, we need to work on our ball pressure. We need to be more active off the ball.”

Nov. 11, the Lions downed the St. Louis Goldstars 56-55.

The game was a back-and-forth affair with the Lions’ gaining their biggest lead of the night on a three-pointer from Karina Kuczynski that gave Southern a 22-14 advantage with 8:41 left in the first half.

However, the Lions could not put away a scrappy Goldstar squad and fell behind by five points when Goldstar went on a 7-2 run to jump on top 43-38 on the strength of five points from Harmonie King in that span.

Neither squad could find a shooting rhythm on the night, as both teams shot less than 35 percent for the game. The Lions made 22 of 67 field-goal attempts for a 32.8 percent shooting clip, while Goldstar shot 34.5 percent on 20 of 58 shooting.

Junior Robin Kantin and sophomore Danielle DeVader led the Lions with 16 points apiece, with Kantin pulling down a team-high 10 rebounds.

Junior Tynesha Pierce also reached double-digit scoring for Southern with 10 points.

On Nov. 4 the Lions fell to the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks 78-48 in the exhibition opener for both squads at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

Senior Dana-Mae Robbs led the Lions with 19 points.