The Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears held off a late charge by the Louisiana State University Lady Tigers in the second half to win 85-75, behind 42 points from last year's NCAA Division I scoring leader, Jackie Stiles.
The local crowd was behind the undersized and understaffed Lady Tigers though 17th-ranked SW Missouri had hundreds of fans on hand to cheer them on Friday night at the Paradise Jam in the Kean High School Gym.
Tenth-ranked LSU fielded just seven players after two players were suspended for fighting in an earlier win. But Lady Tigers coach Sue Gunter did not think that size or the small bench was the factor that led to her team's demise.
"We did not play hard in the first half," she said. "If we played the entire game with the intensity we played with in the closing minutes the game would have been different."
Stiles' game-high 42 points put her just 717 points from the NCAA Division I record. "I don't focus on records," the 5-foot 7-inch senior said. "I simply do whatever it takes to help my team win."
She did exactly that Friday. LSU double-teamed Stiles in the second half, but her teammates picked up the scoring. Stiles' teammate Carly Deer scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Stiles also was perfect from the line 13 times, and for that she gave credit to Kean's brand-new facilities. "I like this gym," she said.
LSU's starters accounted for all their scoring and played all but 11 minutes. Marie Ferdinand led the Lady Tigers with 23 points and went the full 40 minutes of the game. Kisha James also played all 40 minutes, but that wasn't the hard part: She was also assigned to guard Stiles.
