It took a little longer than hoped for the Missouri Southern women’s basketball team to get going, but for now they seem to have righted the ship after hosting last week’s Pizza Hut/Fairfield Inn Thanksgiving Classic.

After the 0-2 start to the season, the Lions have put together two solid wins against tough teams.

Southern opened their tournament on the 26th and dominated Avila 71-46.

LaTice Jones and Jasmine Lovejoy each put up 20 points as the Lions cruised to victory.

The Lions followed the action up the following night with a hard-fought victory over Evangel by a score of 67-61. This time Michelle Hedgecock led the way for Southern with 27 points and five steals.

“We needed two wins. We felt it was important to get on a positive roll before MIAA play,” Head Coach Maryann Mitts said. “It was really important that we had a successful weekend, and we did.”

Southern is seeing a balanced attack on offense as Hedgecock was the fourth different leading scorer this season. Jasmine Lovejoy still leads the team with 19.8 points per game, but this year it seems that any player can explode for a huge night.

“It’s real promising to see that we have had four different leading scorers and four different people have career nights,” Mitts said. “What that means is that we do have some very explosive offensive production. Now it is just a matter to get that production meshed together.”

Lovejoy was named most outstanding player of the classic, and Hedgecock and Jones were named to the all-tournament team.

A noticeable difference in this year’s schedule is the start of conference play. Typically the start of MIAA play is in late December, but this year the league has started conference play earlier.

“I think that makes teams try to develop a little quicker than typical years,” said Mitts of the early start. “Now starts the grind of the MIAA season. It is going to be a three month grind of great basketball and great coaching.”

The Lions started on the road during MIAA play Wednesday at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

Southern dropped its conference opener by a score of 71-58. Lovejoy led the team in scoring with 18 on the night.

Lovejoy also pulled down five rebounds. Hedgecock managed eight rebounds of her own while also contributing 14 points in the losing effort.  

Southern will continue conference action this week as they host league leading Central Missouri (5-2 overall, 1-0 in MIAA) tomorrow and Missouri Western (2-1, 0-0) on Wednesday.  The Lions split with both teams last season winning both home matchups but falling to both teams on the road.

“We have to rely on our defense to produce points for us,” Mitts said of her gameplan. “We need to be aggressive offensively, and playing a home game and defending our home court is very important. We need to have a bounce in our step to defend that home court.”