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Freshman Tyonna Snow led four players in double figures as the MSU Lady Bears beat Truman State 87-62 in an exhibition game Sunday at JQH Arena in Springfield.

Snow, playing her first collegiate game in front of a crowd of 2,139, put in 19 points on six of nine shooting and hit seven of eight at the free throw line. Junior Hannah Wilkerson scored 16 points, redshirt freshman Kenzie Williams had 12, and freshman Tori Henderson scored ten off the bench for the Lady Bears.

Snow says while she's happy with her debut performance, it's not all about her. "I think I had a good game, but I didn't do it for myself," Snow said. "I did it to help my team." 

While the freshman may have been reserved in talking about her own performance, Lady Bears Head Coach Nyla Milleson was singing Snow's praise after the game. "Ty's going to be a special player for us. Defensively, I think we knew what we were going to get, but offensively she can just make things happen."

Amy Briggs had 15 points to pace the Bulldogs, followed by Becca McHenry with 12 and Jennifer Conway with ten points.

Missouri State jumped out to a 17-5 lead behind the play of Wikerson, Snow, Williams, Whitney Edie and Karly Buer.

MSU carried a 45-33 lead into the half, and after Truman State briefly cut the lead to nine points at 49-40 with 17:41 left in regulation, senior Christiana Shorter got her only bucket of the game as she connected on a layup and was fouled.

Milleson says overall, she was pleased with how things went on the court. "There was a lot of nerves, a lot of anxiousness, not only from our freshmen, but from our returners stepping up in their first game. A lot of things to work on, but a lot of positives to build on also." 

And with all seven freshmen seeing action in the game, Milleson says she didn't really see a lot of mistakes typical of first year players. "I thought for the most part we were pretty poised. I think the thing we probably saw more than anything is a little bit of nerves that maybe caused us not to be quite so strong and got the ball poked out on rebounds. As far as execution, they did a pretty good job. Defensively, I thought they were pretty solid. But there's lots of expectations for this entire group and I thought we performed pretty well today." 

Truman State edged the Lady Bears in rebounds 40-39, getting one more offensive board. MSU committed 17 turnovers to the Bulldogs' 32. The Lady Bears, who were 50.8% shooting from the floor, were 58.6% from the free throw line (17-29) to Truman State's 47.1% (8-17).

Missouri State extended the lead, going ahead by 30 points with just under three minutes left in the contest.

The Lady Bears will play Southwest Baptist University in another preseason game Friday night at JQH Arena.Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05.