MARYVILLE - The Lincoln men's and women's basketball teams dropped both games of a doubleheader Thursday at Northwest Missouri.
In the women's game, Lincoln's losing streak extended to 14 games with a narrow 61-60 loss to Northwest Missouri.
Neither team led by double digits, but Northwest Missouri held the edge most of the game, leading 20-16 after one quarter and 37-28 at halftime.
The Blue Tigers battled back in the third quarter, closing the gap to two points midway through the quarter. Bre Coleman's layup with 2:55 to play in the third tied the game at 40.
Lincoln never led in the third quarter, trailing 46-45 entering the fourth. The Blue Tigers fell behind by nine again at 56-47 with less than seven minutes to play, but they answered with a 9-0 run to tie the game with about four minutes to play.
Coleman gave Lincoln its first lead of the second half with a layup to make the score 58-56. Northwest Missouri did not make a field goal in the last six minutes of the game, but the Bearcats made five free throws in that span.
Trailing 59-58 with about two minutes to go, Lincoln had several opportunities to take the lead. However, the Blue Tigers missed four shots and committed two turnovers and were forced to foul with :10 remaining. Mallory McAndrews made both free throws to extend Northwest Missouri's lead to 61-58.
Coleman scored a basket on the other end with :03 left to cut the deficit to one, but the Bearcats were able to in-bound the ball and let time expire to get their second straight win.
Tanya Meyer scored a game-high 27 ponts for Northwest Missouri (3-17, 2-10 MIAA) and added 13 rebounds for a double-double.
Coleman led Lincoln (3-18, 0-13 MIAA) with a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds. Citlali Lopez, Lajanea Kimbrough and Tyler Brown-Henderson each scored seven points.
III
The Lincoln men scored the first five points, but that would be their only lead of the game in a 76-43 loss against the sixth-ranked Bearcats.
Terrance Smith dunked on the game's opening possession and then knocked down a 3-pointer on Lincoln's next possession to make the score 5-0 about a minute into the game.
Northwest Missouri answered with the next nine points and never trailed again. After another basket by Smith, the Bearcats went on a 10-0 run to push the lead to 19-7 with less than 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
Lincoln trailed 45-27 at halftime and fell behind by as many as 35 points (74-38) with less than four minutes to play.
Justin Pitts led the Bearcats with a game-high 20 points. By halftime, Pitts had 18 points and added eighth assists on the remaining nine made baskets by Northwest Missouri (18-2, 10-2 MIAA).
Smith led Lincoln (11-11, 5-8) with 16 points. Marquise Williams came off the bench to finish with 13 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.
Both Lincoln teams are back on the road Saturday at Missouri Western. The women's game tips off at 1:30 p.m., followed by the men's contest around 3:30 p.m.