No. 1 seed Central Missouri Jennies could not make it out of the quarter-finals round in the MIAA Tournament on Thursday night, falling short to the Lindenwood Lions, 75-66.
Jennies struggled to shoot from the field. After the first half at 36 percent, Central Missouri didn’t peak over 30 percent for the rest of the night. On the other side of the court, Lindenwood shot well throughout the second half with 60 percent of their shots connecting.
The game started evenly matched as both teams came out in the first quarter trading shots. Neither led by more than two points until Lindenwood led 19-17 thanks to their 50 percent shooting performance connecting 8 of their 16 shots. The Jennies shot 42 percent from the field on 6 out of their 14 shot attempts. Megan Skaggs scored seven of the Jennies 17 points in the first quarter of play.
At the beginning of the second, the Jens scored seven points in the first five minute offensively, but defensively held Lindenwood scoreless and led 24-19. Both teams offensively picked up the intensity in the final minutes of the quarter as the two teams combined for 20 points. The Jennies added 11 points to the board to finish the half with the lead 35-28.
UCM managed to keep the lead through the whole third quarter as both teams came out trading points. The Jennies struggled shooting only making three shots from the field but made 10 free throws to keep in the game.
The fourth quarter Lindenwood gained an advantage over Central as they went on a 9-0 run to take their first lead since early in the second quarter, 57-56. The Jennies had a terrible end to the game only making two of their eight shots for the rest of the game. Lindenwood padded their lead by hitting five of their eight free throws in the final 53 seconds to claim victory.
Skaggs did her best to keep the Jennies in the game as she scored 25 points with six rebounds and nine of her 11 free throw attempts made. Morgan Fleming also did well offensively scoring 18 points and adding six rebounds. Paige Redmond had an off-night with only six points through the game without a three-pointer made. The Lions were led behind Gabby Walker who had a team-high 20 points and only a rebound shy of a double-double.
Although the Jennies lost, their place in the NCAA Central Region appears to be safe as they will take on Minnesota State University – Moorhead at 2:30 Friday, March 9 at Elmen Center in Sioux Falls, North Dakota.