After having its season opener postponed because of COVID-19, the Lincoln women's basketball team played a bit shorthanded Saturday against the Missouri Southern Lions.
Already three games in, Missouri Southern began to take control midway through the first quarter.
"Taking those two weeks off I think really hurt us, but we're very, very resilient," first-year Lincoln coach Drea Mize said.
The Blue Tigers outscored the Lions in the second half, but the deficit was too large to overcome in an 81-65 defeat for Lincoln.
Aliyah Bello put Lincoln ahead 5-3 four minutes into the game at Jason Gym with a 3-pointer from the wing.
The game was tied about 30 seconds later on a Madi Stokes second-chance basket and Kaitlin Hunnicutt put the Lions on top with a 3 from the top of the key less than a minute after that.
The margin grew from there, as the Lions beat the Blue Tiger press to get a layup from Zoe Campbell for a 17-7 lead.
"That's our style of play is that full-court press," Mize said. "We knew right away just with our numbers that we were going to have to pick and choose our battles with the full-court press."
Lincoln was called for nine fouls in the first quarter and trailed 20-10.
That forced the Blue Tigers to back out into their half-court defense, which didn't prevent them from causing the Lions to turn the ball over on numerous occasions.
Seven Lincoln players were credited with at least one steal, including three for Bello and two for AJ Bradley.
"They're tremendous on-ball defenders, and that's really what has made them even better offensively for some of our guards," Mize said.
Even with Lincoln stealing it away seven times in the first half, Missouri Southern built a 43-26 lead by halftime because the Blue Tigers were held to just seven points off turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
Missouri Southern led by as many as 23 (75-52) with about six minutes remaining.
After that point, Deija Jackson scored 10 points in a span of about two minutes on her way to 12 points.
"I do think the ability to not give up and to keep fighting back, that's just going to be our staple moving forward," Mize said.
Niyah Jackson led Lincoln with 15 points and five assists, and Bello added 10 points and four rebounds.
The guard-heavy Blue Tigers didn't have an answer for the 6-foot-3 Stokes, who reached a double-double by halftime and finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes.
"We were allowing her to get to the block," Mize said. "She did great job offensively on the boards. And putbacks, she's just so long and is able to keep the ball high."
Amaya Jones added 14 points and four rebounds.
Missouri Southern (1-3) is scheduled to host Northeastern State on Thursday.
Lincoln (0-1) will head to St. Joseph on Thursday to take on Missouri Western.
"I think right now with the stage that we're at, just trying to get some kids back from COVID and get some kids healthy," Mize said. "We need a lot of reps at what we do so that we know what style of ball we're walking into."