Lions control game, cruise past Lopers

Jan. 15—Missouri Southern was in control from start to finish on Saturday when the University of Nebraska-Kearney came into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center and was handed a 72-56 loss.

The Lions (11-4, 7-2 MIAA) were leading 21-10 by the end of the first quarter and quickly stretched that advantage to 14 points with a 3-pointer to start the second stanza.

"It's becoming the same response every time. But, again, our defense was really good at times," head coach Ronnie Ressel said about MSSU's performance Saturday. "Our kids are locked in as far as scouts and what we need to do on the defensive end."

UNK (11-4, 5-4 MIAA) wasn't down by double digits the entire game, though. In fact, the Lopers cut the deficit to just 5 points during the third quarter. A 10-0 run was capped off by back-to-back 3-pointers from Macy Bryant and Brinly Christensen to make it 47-42.

But the Lions scored the next 4 points to make it 51-42. UNK added one free throw before the end of the third quarter.

Kearney started the final period with another basket to make it 51-45. MSSU took off from there, scoring the game's next 12 points and forcing plenty of turnovers in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the quarter.

"I like how our mentality is as far as when they do make a little run, we fight back," Ressel said. "We'll get a score and we'll come back after that on the defensive end and really lock down."

Reese Webb's 3-pointer finished the 12-0 run. Christensen tried to keep the Lopers in it with another triple, but then on the Lions' next possession Kaitlin Hunnicutt made a trey of her own.

UNK scored on their next possession with a quick layup to make it 66-50.

MSSU officially put the nail in the coffin after consecutive scores with Mia Topping's 3-point basket and Ryan Franklin's layup to make it 71-50 with 3:11 left to play.

Ressel sees his team's defensive stops as a key to the offense noting that the offense is "really good" when it's able to get out in transition after a stop or turnover.

MSSU forced 21 of those turnovers in the game and 13 came in the second half. The Lions dominated that part of the game with only 9 turnovers themselves. They also scored 23 points off of the Lopers' miscues.

Twelve offensive rebounds led to 12 second-chance points for Southern; Kearney had one second-chance point.

There was a huge discrepancy in bench points as well with the Lions tallying 29 from reserve players to the Lopers' 15.

Leading scorers for MSSU were Kryslyn Jones (14), Ryan Franklin (14), Kaitlin Hunnicutt (9), Mira Khan (8) and Brandi Hudson (8).

UNK's top scorer was Kia Wilson with 20 and Shiloh McCool added 13 — both grabbed seven rebounds. Jillian Ashcoff dished out eight assists to lead all players.

The Lions have won eight straight games now, and four of those were against ranked opponents. Ressel doesn't consider this to be any sort of a message to the rest of the country but more of a reminder to his team not to falter during the successful run.

"That'll be a big thing for us. We've executed both offensive and defensive over these eight games, and now over the next five, we're going to play the lower half of the teams, and we have to make sure we stay focused over these next five games," Ressel said.