Missouri State Lady Bears erase 15-point deficit vs. Drake to advance to MVC Tournament semis
MOLINE, Ill. — March is all about surviving and advancing.
It was Lady Bears head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said as she sat down for her postgame press conference. It wasn't too long before when her team was down 15 and looked like a team that could have its NCAA Tournament bubble burst.
But somehow, someway, the Lady Bears survived and advanced.
After trailing by as many as 15 in the first half, the Lady Bears rallied in the second for a 63-49 win over Drake in the quarterfinal round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
"I knew it was going to be tough but I didn't think we were going to do down by 15," Agugua-Hamilton said. "But we fought back before halftime and we just came back tougher and executed the gameplan."
The second half saw the Lady Bears outscore the Bulldogs 38-16. They held the Bulldogs to 5-for-28 from the field while also forcing them into 13 turnovers.
Agugua-Hamilton pointed to just before the first half ended as the turning point as her team appeared to be on the brink of elimination.
After Drake's third 3 of the second quarter put the Lady Bears down by 15 with 6:10 left, MSU starting point guard Mya Bhinhar scored the game's next six points to wake her team up. After another Bulldog triple, Mariah White and Abi Jackson scored the half's final two buckets to go into halftime down by eight.
"Mya's leadership was off the charts," Agugua-Hamilton said. "There was a point in the second half when she was in my chair during a timeout. That's what you want from one of your seniors."
Missouri State came out as the aggressors in the second half. The Lady Bears didn't attempt a free throw in the first but finished 14-of-16 from the stripe in the second half with 10 of the shots and makes coming from Sydney Wilson.
A 14-5 run out of halftime capped off by an Abigayle Jackson layup gave the Lady Bears a 39-38 lead with 3:06 left in the third. After Drake retook the lead, four straight free throws from Wilson, who finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds, gave the Lady Bears a lead they didn't give back.
"We just took together even when shots weren't falling," Wilson said. "We're obviously here for a reason and that's because we're good. I felt like that we got the jitters out of the way and we'll be good the next two games."
Missouri State will play Northern Iowa for a trip to the championship after splitting their regular-season series. The semifinal game will be played on Saturday at 4 p.m. opposite the other semifinal featuring No. 1 Southern Illinois and No. 4 Illinois State.
The Lady Bears hope they have their jitters out of the way and won't have to climb back from down 15 again. If they do, they know they won't back down while comparing Friday's game to when they came back from down 16 against Maryland last season or rallying to win at Oklahoma when down 20 in 2019.
"That's not the game plan," Agugua-Hamilton laughed. "I would like to play a full 40 minutes but we're getting there. We have this out of our system and we just need to go get it tomorrow."
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State Lady Bears rally vs. Drake in MVC Tournament
