Feb. 7, 2009
KIRKSVILLE – Freshman guard Breanna Daniels scored a career-high 24 points off the bench and senior forward Georgia Mueller finished just three assists shy of a triple-double, as the Truman women’s basketball team pulled away with a 53-point second half in an 87-80 win against Southwest Baptist on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (5-17, 2-13 MIAA) scored a season-best 87 points by shooting 58% from the field and connecting on 23-of-30 free throws against the Bearcats (7-14, 4-10), who currently hold the No. 8 spot in the MIAA standings with five games to play.
SBU led 34-30 with under a minute to play in the first half before the Bulldogs got four late points from Daniels – including a jumper at the buzzer – to send the teams into the intermission tied at 34.
A Mueller jumper and a pair of Daniels free throws expanded the run to 8-0 out of the break, before SBU pulled even at 38 on back-to-back buckets. That would be the last tie of the contest, however, as the Bulldogs regained the lead just seconds later and never relinquished it.
Daniels’ 24 sets a new career-high and ties the Truman individual high for the season, as she connected on nine-of-14 field goals and was perfect from the charity stripe in 28 minutes of play. Mueller, meanwhile, scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half and tacked on ten rebounds and seven assists.
Three other Bulldogs – junior Julie Guinn (15), junior Laura Joya (14) and senior Eli Medina (10) – added double-figures, with Guinn doing most of her damage beyond the arc with four three-pointers. Joya contributed nine rebounds and four assists, while
For the game, Truman out-rebounded the Bearcats 37-30 and swatted away five SBU shots. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 21 times but only committed seven in the second half while forcing SBU into 15 of their own.
The Bulldogs have two more home games at Pershing Arena next week, starting with a Thursday night affair with