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Illinois State Ends MSU Lady Bears 13 Game Winning Streak 60-56

Illinois State Ends MSU Lady Bears 13 Game Winning Streak 60-56

Illinois State Ends MSU Lady Bears 13 Game Winning Streak 60-56

The Illinois State Redbirds have done something no other team in the Missouri Valley Conference has been able to do so far this season: beat the Missouri State Lady Bears.

The Redbirds got 23 points from Simone Goods and 22 from Tete Maggett in a 60-56 win over MSU on a wintry Friday night at JQH Arena.

The loss for the Lady Bears ends a 13 game winning streak, which going into Friday’s contest, was the third longest active streak in NCAA Division I.

MSU had won 17 straight regular season Valley games, the second longest in program history.

Neither team led by more than five points at any time during the night, but the Lady Bears struggled on both the offensive and defensive end.

Missouri State went 0-14 from the three point line, but only got to the free throw line for nine attempts (making eight of them).

The Redbirds out-rebounded MSU 35-33 and went 18-27 from the line, despite hitting only two treys in 11 attempts.

The Lady Bears held a 25-22 advantage at the half, and 37-33 after three quarters, but a layup by Maggett with 40.8 seconds left in the game put the Redbirds ahead to stay.

Illinois State (14-9, 7-5) made six of eight free throw attempts in the final minute to hold off any hopes of a home team comeback.

Jasmine Franklin, who played only 24 minutes because of getting into foul trouble, scored 12 points to lead MSU.

“We just could not get things going on either end of the court for extended minutes,” Lady Bears Coach Kellie Harper said to open her postgame press conference. We just couldn’t get in a flow really.”

Harper says not shooting the ball well also frustrating. “A lot of that had to do with Illinois State’s defense, so I don’t want to put it all on us and not give them credit. In terms of our team, we just didn’t move the ball well.”

Lady Bears senior Danielle Gitzen says it’s a tough loss. “We kind of just talked about in the locker room, it’s little things. Whether it’s we didn’t go over a screen we were supposed to go over, wasn’t boxing out. One girl wasn’t taking a charge. It’s every little thing. When you play good teams, they’re going to capitalize on those mistakes that you make. Moving forward, we have to improve that.”

The loss leaves the Lady Bears with a 14-8 overall record, 10-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Drake beat Northern Iowa Friday night, leaving the Bulldogs one half game better then the Lady Bears with an 11-1 conference mark.

The Lady Bears are right back in action Sunday afternoon when they take on Bradley at The Q.

Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m.

Game Notes: 

Lady Bears sophomore Abby Hipp left the game in the second half with a shoulder injury. Harper says while it’s not believed to be serious, she didn’t know how long Hipp would be out.

This was the fourth time Missouri State had started league play 10-0 or better, and the first since the 2004 team won its first 11 Valley games.

The Lady Bears had won 14 of the last 17 meetings with the Redbirds prior to Friday’s game.

Friday’s announced attendance at JQH Arena was 1,750.

Missouri State auctioned pink jerseys and took donations Friday night for the Kay Yow Fund for women’s cancers. Both fans and players wore pink.

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