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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team opened MIAA action with a 66-53 victory over Lincoln University Thursday night in Jason Gym.
 
The RiverHawks (4-4, 1-0 MIAA) won their fourth-straight game and got back to .500 for the season after opening the campaign 0-4.  
 
Junior guard Chelsey Beathard registered a career-high 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting. She was also 4 of 5 from behind the three-point line. Fellow junior guard Fontana Tate added 14 for the visitors.
 
NSU shot 47 percent (22-for-47) from the field and held the Blue Tigers (3-5, 0-1 MIAA) to just 29-percent shooting (18-for-62).
 
Hunter Yoakum led LU with 15 points and was the lone member of the squad in double figures.
 
The game was a sluggish start for both teams as neither club could get separation due to a handful of missed shots and turnovers.
 
The first real run of the contest began at the 6:32 mark. Tate converted a layup to tie the game at 16-16 and the RiverHawks ended the first half on an 18-2 run. NSU took a 32-18 lead into intermission.
 
NSU stayed hot in the first six minutes of the second half, using an early 12-4 run to move ahead by 22 points.
 
Lincoln was able to get back to within 11 at 54-43 with 6:39 to play, but one final 10-0 run was all the RiverHawks would need to stay on top and earn the conference-opening victory.
 
Northeastern State will now travel to St. Charles, Mo., for a meeting with Lindenwood at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 7.
 
Scoring Summary
Northeastern State  32        34        66
Lincoln                       18        35        53

Northeastern State Coach Randy Gipson
Opening Statement…
"We're happy to get the win in our first conference game. We didn't come out of here with a win last year. I'm happy our kids played hard. I thought we defended well for the most part. It was a bit of a sloppy game. There were a lot of turnovers and missed shots. I thought we left some points out there offensively. All in all, it was a good effort. When you play the first conference game, it's just a different atmosphere and vibe. The freshmen go back to being freshmen again, and you have to find your leaders. I thought a couple of our older kids stepped up and played well when we needed them to."
 
On Chelsey Beathard scoring a career-high 17 points…
"Chelsey had a good second half, and I was happy to see that. She's a very important player for us. I thought she was ready to score, and that was something we talked to her about at halftime. We needed those points."
 
On the big run at the end of the first half…
"Defensively we played well. We limited them to just one shot. We got some shots to fall. We were able to get our offensive execution moving better. We were out of sync and unbalanced in our offensive spacing early on and we did a lot better job of that in the latter part of half. Fontana Tate made a few good plays there and gave us a lift."

-GoRiverHawksGo.com-