(KIRKSVILLE, Mo.) — Senior Nicole Caddell finished with a team-high 20 points Saturday, but it wasn’t enough as the No. 11 Jennies were upset 73-64 in their final MIAA road trip to Truman.
The loss snaps an eight-game winning streak for the Jennies and is the first of the season to an unranked opponent.
The Bulldogs (13-3, 6-2 MIAA) won the tip and broke for a quick layup, earning a lead that they held throughout much of the opening ten minutes.
After TSU’s Megan Sharpe made it a 6-2, Truman lead at the 15:51 mark of the first half. The Jennies answered with a 14-5 run to go up by five, 16-11 with 9:05 in the first half. Truman pulled to within a point with a jumper from Allie Norton, before junior Symone Murray hit one of her two treys on the day, pushing the UCM lead back up to 22-18.
Murray finished with 11 points, reaching double-figures for the fifth time this season and the first since last month’s game at Fort Hays State.
Truman came back with eight straight points in under a minute, highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers for the Bulldogs. TSU held a narrow lead through the rest of the first half, going into the break with a 33-31 advantage.
The Jennies (13-2, 5-2 MIAA) cut Truman’s lead to one on three occasions in the opening four minutes of the second half before pushing ahead with a Brielle Wattley layup.
Wattley drew the foul on the play and knocked down the free throw, putting UCM ahead 40-38 with 15:36 to play.
Central Missouri’s second-half lead only lasted 11 seconds as Truman came back with six straight points and a 13-2 run over the following three minutes, building a nine-point advantage, 51-42.
Nicole Caddell knocked down the jumper on the next possession, and then hit a pair of free throws to close within five points, 51-46.
Truman again answered, scoring four straight of their own and eventually taking their biggest lead of the day with a three-pointer from Norton, going ahead 67-55.
The Jennies made it a four-point game in the final minute with another Caddell layup, but the Bulldogs closed out the win with a 6-of-6 performance from the free-throw line in the final 38 seconds.
With her 20-point performance, Caddell inches closer to the 1,000-point mark. The Tuscaloosa, Ala., native now has 968 points during her three-year Jennies career.
Keuna Flax finished with 16 points, missing the 20-point mark for just the third time in eight games this season. Flax pulled down six rebounds and recorded a career-high two blocks in the game.
The Jennies return home next week, where they are 9-0 this season, for a pair of MIAA matchups. UCM will host Missouri Western on Wednesday before welcoming Northwest Missouri on Saturday.