(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) — In the first Top-25 season-opening matchup for the Central Missouri women’s basketball program, the 8th ranked Jennies defeated No. 23 Minnesota State, 96-88 at the Multipurpose Building on Saturday night.
The Jennies jumped out to an 8-2 advantage over the Mavericks (0-1) in the first 1:20 following a pair of three-pointers by Flax and senior BreAnna Lewis and a field goal by junior Revonnia Howard.
UCM stretched the lead to nine at 17-8 with 14:34 in the opening half following a layup by Flax and stretched the lead to 12 over the next three minutes at 27-15. The Jennies’ earned their biggest lead of the game at 14 courtesy of a three pointer by Lewis, her second of the night.
Minnesota State’s Aubrey Davis hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to seven at 46-39 with 2:06 remaining in the opening half. Minnesota State ended the half on a mini 6-2 run, pulling to within 48-45 following Hilary Paulson’s jump shot with three seconds before halftime.
Karlee Gengenbacher’s layup brought Minnesota State to within a point 37 seconds into the second half, but UCM came back with a pair of layups by Shelby Winkelmann and Lewis, putting the Mavericks into a five-point hole.
The Mavericks erased the five-point deficit over the next 1:53, bringing the game’s first tie at 52-52 on a layup by Davis.
Over the next 5:12, Flax scored six points en route to a 12-7 run to help the Jennies take a 64-59 advantage with 11:36 left in the game. However, the game saw its second tie of the night when Brittany Scherber sank a three and Ali Wilkinson’s jumper evened the tally at 64-all with 10:19 remaining.
Winkelmann helped the Jennies pull away for good, scoring six of the UCM’s next 10 points to close out a 10-0 run, putting the score at 74-64 with 7:24 in the game. Minnesota State cut the deficit to six points with 3:35 left, but it proved to be the closest they would come in a final effort to tie the game. The Jennies closed out the final 55 seconds converting on five on their final eight free throws, cementing the 96-88 victory.
Flax led the Jennies (1-0) with 30 points (15 in first half) and added seven boards in 36 minutes of action. Lewis added 20, while Winkelmann added 15 in her first game back since Dec. 18 of last season.
The Jennies shot 46 percent from the field (31 of 66) and went 7-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc (36 percent). They outscored Minnesota State, 36-31 in the paint and added 13 second-chance points to the Mavericks’ two.
Davis was Minnesota State’s leader scorer with 20, with five other Mavericks scoring a dozen points. Minnesota State held a 30-20 advantage in bench points.
The Jennies are back in action next Wednesday night as they are set to host William Jewell at the Multipurpose Building for a 5:30 tip-off.
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