Southern ready for difficult finish

Raising awareness of breast cancer in its annual Pink Game, Missouri Southern’s women’s basketball team cruised to a 65-50 win over Missouri Western, stretching the home record to 10-0 on the year.

During the Lions’ current five-game winning streak, they are outscoring opponents by an average of nearly 12 points.

This is due in large part to a full team effort. In the Pink Game, seven Southern players scored at least six points, and senior Dominique Mosley led the way with 13.

With only nine games remaining in the regular season, the Lions are playing some of their best basketball yet.

Head Coach Ronda Hubbard said, “Our team is getting better each game and we feel like we still have a lot of places to improve. Our aim is to take it one game at a time, improve daily and be playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”

One player that has seen an increased role in the past couple of weeks is junior Shawnee Phillips.

Phillips doesn’t always stuff the stat sheet, but has seen a steady rise in minutes.

“Shawnee is improving defensively, which has made her a bigger asset on the floor,” said Hubbard. “Players that are well rounded and bring more than one thing to the table usually increase their roles as the season goes along.”

Looking forward, the Lions will face one of their toughest opponents yet, Central Missouri.

Central Missouri is a top-10 team in the nation and has only lost three games all season. Hubbard looks forward to the challenge.

“We are always excited for those types of challenges … We are currently just a half game back from UCM, so I know our players should be fired up to play this game,” she said.

With the end of the season looming Southern knows that beating Central Missouri is key.