HAYS, Kan. – Belle Barieri scored 13 points, pulled down nine rebounds, dished out five assists and had five steals to lead the 16th-ranked Fort Hays State women’s basketball team to a 75-59 win over Missouri Southern State in front of 2,355 Saturday afternoon at Gross Coliseum.
Taylor Rolfs went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc and also scored 13 and Whitney Randall added 11 points and seven boards helping the Tigers (10-2, 1-2 MIAA) to their first conference win.
FHSU forced Missouri Southern (3-8, 0-3 MIAA) into 24 turnovers and outscored the Lions 31-2 in points off turnovers.
The Tigers never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 6-0 and 11-2 first quarter lead. A 17-2 run pushed their lead to 21 late in the second quarter.
MSSU scored eight straight early in the third to close the gap to 43-33 but the Tigers answered with a 16-4 run over the next five and half minutes to push the lead up to 22 points.
The Tigers shot 40-percent from the floor (24-60) and hit 7-of-19 from beyond the arc and went 20-of-28 from the free throw line.