It took Lincoln a couple minutes to find a way to stop Missouri Southern's Chasidee Owens.
The 5-foot-10 senior scored the Lions' first six points with easy drives Thursday night at Jason Gym.
The Blue Tigers kept her from scoring for more than nine minutes after that, but she eventually found ways to score and couldn't be stopped.
Owens finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds, both game highs, to lead the Lions to a 74-65 win against the Blue Tigers in the MIAA contest.
"We already we knew she wants to drive the ball," Lincoln coach Ayana McWilliams said. "But if you give a kid like that who's an aggressive driver and who wants to get downhill point-blank shots at the rim, she's going to do what she did every night."
At the other end, Lincoln was in search of a consistent way to score.
Missouri Southern used its lineup that featured three players 5-10 or taller to keep Lincoln away from the basket.
The 3-point shots opened up for the Blue Tigers, who are last in the conference with a 22.2 percent clip from beyond the arc.
"Anywhere we can see the ball go through the net at this point," McWilliams said. "That's been our struggle all year is trying to find a way to score.
"They came here with a really good game plan to jam up the lanes and stop us from getting to the rim, so we had to go with the next best option of trying to open them up with some 3s."
The first four attempts didn't go in, but Natasha Elliott got the fifth to splash through from the corner to pull Lincoln within 17-14 at the end of the first quarter.
Prior to that, a pair of Kaloni Pryear steals led to quick points and Pryear added a three-point play to help trim an 11-4 deficit to 15-11.
Pryear was one of two Lincoln players to score in double figures with 19 points. She also had a game-high eight assists.
Lincoln never led and only tied it once when Elliott hit from deep again for the first points of the second quarter.
Missouri Southern got its lead back up to eight at 30-22 before Lincoln scored five of the final six points of the half to close the gap again.
"Every time we see the ball go in and we make a bit of a run, something just minor would happen and kind of swing things back their way," McWilliams said. "We've got to figure out a way to play one possession at a time and be more consistent."
Natasha Dolinsky found her stroke from deep, making 5-of-7 from 3-point land in the second half. She led Lincoln with 20 points.
The first made it 33-30 a few minutes into the second half before the Lions scored nine straight, capped off by a three-point play for Owens.
The Lions were able to beat the Blue Tigers' full-court pressure for that layup and foul.
Lincoln picked up the defensive intensity late in the game, causing four turnovers in the final 1:30 to help bring a 72-56 deficit down to the 74-65 final tally.
"I don't think it set in with my team until there was almost no hope left and we're departed," McWilliams said. "We've got to play with desperation the entire time."
Destiny Cozart scored 17 points and Madi Stokes, a 6-3 center, came off the bench for 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks for Missouri Southern (5-10, 2-5 MIAA).
Lincoln (3-12, 0-6) will finish off its three-game homestand at 1 p.m. Saturday against Pittsburg State.