It was a tough shooting performance Saturday afternoon at Jason Gym for the Lincoln women's basketball team, but that wasn't what had coach Ayana McWilliams frustrated.
"(We had) no fight," she said after the Blue Tigers fell 77-55 to the Missouri Southern Lions. "It was a completely different team than what showed up the other night."
Lincoln battled closely with Pittsburg State for the entire 40 minutes Thursday night in a 69-61 loss.
The Blue Tigers scored the game's first five points Saturday, then saw that lead quickly disappear.
Chelsey Henry scored nine points during Missouri Southern's 11-0 run in the first quarter. The 5-foot-10 junior led the Lions with a game-high 26 points, shooting 8-of-11 from the field.
"They're a good ballclub," McWilliams said. "We knew they were good, we knew they were going to go on a run. Every team we face is going to go on a run, basketball is a game of runs.
"We didn't come prepared to play today, that's what it comes down to."
Missouri Southern never trailed after taking a 7-5 lead with 5:52 to play in the first quarter and was ahead 19-11 after the opening 10 minutes.
Robin Butler scored a putback and added a 3-pointer from the right wing to bring Lincoln within seven at 23-16 with 6:42 left in the second quarter.
Missouri Southern's lead fluctuated between eight and 10 points for the next three minutes before closing the half on a 9-2 run to lead 39-25 at halftime.
"We didn't come in, locked in and focused to defend Missouri Southern, and they capitalized," McWilliams said.
The Blue Tigers struggled to make a handful of close-range shots early in the second half and shot just 25 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Lincoln also finished just 8-of-29 from 3-point range for the game.
"I thought we settled a lot," McWilliams said. "There was no real movement."
Henry completed a rare 4-point play early in the third quarter to give Missouri Southern a spark. The Lions made all four 3-point attempts in the quarter and went 8-of-9 from the free-throw line to lead 71-45 entering the fourth quarter.
Although Missouri Southern went without a field goal the entire fourth quarter, it held Lincoln to 10 points in the final 10 minutes and still scored six points from the charity stripe.
"Any time you give up 26 points at the free-throw line, you can't beat anybody playing like that," McWilliams said.
The Blue Tigers played Saturday's game without Faith Brintle, the team's second-leading scorer. Brintle suffered a knee injury late in Thursday's game and McWilliams said her status is day-to-day.
"She felt better today than she did yesterday," McWilliams said of Brintle.
Citlali Lopez led Lincoln with 16 points, playing all 40 minutes while shooting 7-of-23 from the field. Butler finished with 12 points and Tempary Gunter made a pair of free throws with :05 left to get into double figures with 10 points.
Gunter also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Desirea Buerge posted a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds for Missouri Southern (9-7, 6-2 MIAA) and Krista Clark added 11 points off the bench.
Lincoln (3-13, 0-8 MIAA) will try to snap a nine-game losing streak Thursday against No. 12 Central Missouri. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.