SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — In a contest of one the top offensive teams and a top defensive team in the Valley conference, the defense won.
Missouri State beat Bradley 62-56 on Friday at JQH Arena, the Lady Bears first game in Springfield since January 27.
The Lady Bears (14-2, 10-0) reached 10-0 in conference play for the fifth time in school history and the second time in the past three years.
Jasmine Franklin did it all for the Lady Bears. She scored 11 points, grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds and matched a career high with 6 steals.
Abby Hipp scored a team-high 12 points with Brice Calip also scoring 11.
The Lady Bears forced 17 Bradley (12-9, 8-6) turnovers and scored 17 points off those turnovers.
In a game of runs, there was a stretch in the fourth quarter in which neither team scored a point for 4:50 of game time.
“We can always control our energy, we can always control our effort, we can always control our attitude. Has it been perfect every game this season? No, but at the end of the day that’s what we strive to do,” Lady Bears head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We have been down many times before, but we don’t get rattled when we are down. We just have to get back on the same page.
We know that we have to be better tomorrow. They are going to come in hotter, they are going to come with a little fire behind them and we have to do the same.”
The two will finish the series on Saturday at 5 pm in a game you can watch on KOZL.
