LEBANON, Ill. - A Lincoln women's basketball team has started a season 2-0 for just the third time in the past 20 campaigns after the Blue Tigers posted a 66-62 win against the McKendree Bearcats on Tuesday night.
This year's Blue Tigers join the 2011-12 team, which started 4-0, and the 1995-96 team that won its first two as the only teams in that span to start 2-0. The only other times it's been done in school history were by the teams in the seasons of 1984-85, 1985-86 and 1986-87.
The Blue Tigers jumped out to a 42-27 lead after one half and then held off a rally by the Bearcats (0-2) to claim the victory.
Dorian Briggs pumped in a game-high 20 points to lead Lincoln to the win, while Kate Frazier was close behind with 19. Hunter Yoakum added 11 points for the Blue Tigers.
Frazier paced Lincoln with eight rebounds and Lizzie Nessling added six. Frazier led all players with two blocks and tied for the game high with three steals.
The Blue Tigers won despite shooting slightly worse than the Bearcats, 45 percent to 42, and getting outrebounded 43-33. They did so in part by forcing McKendree into 26 turnovers while committing just 18 of their own. Lincoln also made three more free throws than McKendree, but the Blue Tigers were just 13-of-24 from the stripe (54 percent). The Bearcats made 10-of-16 (63 percent).
The game was close for the first 10 minutes, with Lincoln clinging to a 19-16 lead midway through the first half.
But the Blue Tigers closed out the half with a 23-11 run to take control. The Blue Tigers' biggest lead of the game came at 38-22 with 2:40 left before intermission.
The Bearcats came racing out of the locker room and cut the lead to seven just three minutes into the second half.
McKendree cut the lead to three points on four different occasions between the 9-minute mark and 6 minutes remaining, but could never get over the hump.
Lincoln will look to make it three wins in a row when it they open the University of Missouri-St. Louis Classic at 7 p.m. Friday against the host school. The Blue Tigers finish the event at 1 p.m. Saturday against Maryville University.