MARYVILLE - The duo of Zoi Thompson and Zhanesha Dickerson showed up in full force Thursday as they combined to score 51 points to lead the Lincoln women's basketball team to a 69-66 win against the Northwest Missouri Bearcats.
The victory extends Lincoln's longest winning streak to begin a season to seven games. It's also the first time the Blue Tigers won their conference opener since 2009, when they were in the Heartland Conference.
The Blue Tigers and Bearcats wasted no time lighting up the scoreboard in this MIAA matchup.
Northwest opened the game on an 11-4 run before Lincoln scored nine straight points to lead 13-11 with 3:27 left in the first quarter.
Dickerson made two 3-pointers during the run and Thompson knocked down a long-range shot to close the first quarter on a 7-0 run for a 27-16 lead.
Lincoln led by as many as 10 in the second quarter and took a 41-33 advantage into the halftime break.
A Shannyn Triplett jumper with 3:39 left in the third quarter extended the lead to 55-39, the largest of the game.
Lincoln led 57-46 heading to the fourth quarter, but Northwest cut it to single digits with a Maria Dentlinger layup with 8:12 remaining.
The teams later traded 7-0 runs before Northwest scored six straight points to pull within three with 49 seconds left.
Lincoln and Northwest each turned it over and the Bearcats missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Thompson scored a game-high 27 points, while Dickerson had 24 points and 14 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Triplett scored 13 points.
Jaelyn Haggard led Northwest with 14 points.
Lincoln (7-0, 1-0 MIAA) plays Saturday at Missouri Western. The game will tip at 2 p.m. in St. Joseph.