Sometimes all it takes is a change of routine to snap a losing streak.
Playing the second game of Thursday night's MIAA doubleheader at Jason Gym instead of the opener, the Lincoln women's basketball team never trailed in a 73-62 win against Missouri Western.
The victory snapped an 18-game losing streak for the Blue Tigers that dated back to Nov. 27, and it gave them their first conference win of the season in 18 tries.
After the game, Lincoln coach Ayana McWilliams joked that maybe the women should play the second half of the doubleheaders from now on.
"To be honest, it kind of threw us off with our schedule," McWilliams said. "But at the end of the day, if this is what it's going to take, then maybe we should switch."
The switch was announced Thursday morning. Missouri Western's men's team was already in Jefferson City, but the women had yet to depart from St. Joseph. Because of the winter weather, officials from both schools decided to play the men's game first and give the women's team enough time to make the trip safely.
In addition to a routine change, the Blue Tigers found a full-proof way to snap their losing streak. They never trailed against the Griffons.
The Blue Tigers made their first six shot attempts - they shot 56 percent from the floor - and three of those were made by Bre Coleman, who led the Blue Tigers with a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds. Four minutes into the game, Lincoln led 12-2.
"It's easy to come out and play hard when you have the fans," McWilliams said. "It was a great home-court advantage when we first came out. We fed into that energy a little bit."
Citlali Lopez grabbed and steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup with 3:09 left in the first quarter to give Lincoln a 19-4 lead, its biggest of the game. Missouri Western used three of its four timeouts in the opening quarter.
"I told them to keep their foot on the gas," McWilliams said. "Don't let up and enjoy it. We had to keep playing at a high level."
Lincoln led 21-9 after one quarter. Missouri Western opened the second on a 7-0 run, but Coleman scored from the right block on the next possession to get into double figures in scoring 12 minutes into the game.
"When you have Bre connecting on the inside, you have to keep playing through her," McWilliams said of Coleman, who shot 9-of-10 from the field. "We had to get her more touches and keep wearing them down."
The Griffons used another 7-0 run to pull even with the Blue Tigers at 25-all. Alecia Kaelke answered with back-to-back baskets, but Missouri Western came back to tie the game at 32 heading into halftime.
That would be the third and final time the Griffons tied the game. Missouri Western had an opportunity to take the lead to start the second half, but a Griffon turnover followed by a layup from Tyler Brown-Henderson gave Lincoln the lead for good.
The Blue Tigers led 46-44 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. Faith Brintle hit a deep 3-pointer, then added another 3 two minutes late to cap a 10-0 run to give Lincoln a 56-44 advantage with 7:10 to play.
"When we see the ball go through the net, it gives us the energy to go down on the other end of the floor and take care of things," McWilliams said. "From start to finish, it was a great night with great energy."
Missouri Western never got closer than seven points after that and was forced to foul down the stretch. Lincoln made its last nine free-throw attempts in the final two minutes and shot 16-of-19 from the stripe.
Brintle finished with 17 points and five assists and had a perfect night shooting: 5-of-5 from the field, 3-of-3 from 3-point range and 4-of-4 from the line. Brown-Henderson added 12 points and Lopez got to double figures in the closing seconds, scoring 10 points.
Savannah Lentz had a team-high 19 points for Missouri Western (11-16, 4-14 MIAA), which clinched the 12th and final spot in next week's MIAA Tournament with Northwest Missouri's loss Thursday against Lindenwood.
Lincoln (4-22, 1-17 MIAA) hosts Northwest Missouri (4-22, 3-15 MIAA) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday with a chance to finish the season on a win streak.
"We were deflated a little bit because we didn't make it to the postseason, but again, it's about sending these seniors out on a high note," McWilliams said.