The women’s basketball team came through with a win against the Southwest Baptist University Bearcats on Thursday, Feb. 13.

The team shot a season-high 62.2 percent from the field and defeated the Bearcats 69-63.

“We go from being a good team to a great team when we are putting the ball in the basket,” Head Coach Maryann Mitts said.

The Lions played great team basketball on Thursday both offensively and defensively. They kept the lead the whole game except for a minute in the middle of the first half when SBU forced a tie score.

The Lions broke away with a steal by junior Tee Singleton which led to a layup to make the score 22-20.

Singleton excelled on offense and defense with 13 points and eight rebounds. Shonte Clay also had five rebounds and a total of 8 points.

This team has a lot of depth on its roster. Freshman guard Sharese Jones led the team with 16 points, and junior Dominique Mosley and senior Erin Rice added nine points each to the win against the Bearcats.

Mitts and junior Johnna TenBerge agreed that team effort played a large role in the win.  TenBerge said the team had better ball movement and had patience when on offense.

“We played more like a team and with more intensity especially on the defensive end,” TenBerge said.

Mitts agreed and felt it was the team’s defense and rebounding that made the difference in the game.

“Every time we have won it has been a complete team effort,” Mitts said.

In the past eight games, the Lions have played three nationally-ranked teams, including top-10 ranked Central Missouri. Even then, Southern competed with the Jennies and was in the game until the last few minutes.

The Lions kept the score within 10 points the whole game until it came to the last two minutes.

The Jennies came through in the end with four quick shots that put them up by 13 until Singleton scored the last jump shot with five seconds left to make the final score 74-63. Mosley finished the game with 13 points and seven rebounds. While Rice had the game high of 14 points, TenBerge added 9 points to the score as well.

Although the final score says the Lions lost, Mitts thinks otherwise.

“I think we played better than Thursday to be honest, I think our execution offensively was just as good, and defensively we followed the game plan the entire game,” she said. “Our rebounding was better. We are playing pretty good basketball.”

The Lions faced the RiverHawks of Northeastern State on Wednesday losing by a score of 56-48.

Despite the slow offense of the Lions, TenBerge led the team with a career-high of 14 points, including three 3-pointers.

Rice added 11 points and Mosley had nine points with a team-high of nine rebounds.

The Lions are playing some very good teams and go on to play Emporia State for the second time at home tomorrow, Feb. 16.