The NBA Three-Point Shootout at All-Star Saturday night may still be a week away, but Jolea Apon gave the fans at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center an early appetizer by hitting a school-record 11 3-pointers and scoring a career-high 35 points in powering the Missouri Southern Lions to a critical 87-64 win over the Missouri Western Griffons Saturday evening.
The Lions now sit one and a half games ahead of the Griffons for the eighth and final spot in the MIAA Postseason Tournament in Kansas City. The Lions are now 6-8 in the MIAA while the Griffons fall to 5-9 in the league.
Apon's 11 treys breaks the previous school record of nine 3s set by Sonya Harlin in 1993. Her 11 3-pointers also tie her with Laura Satterfield and Jenni Miller for the all-time MIAA record.
The Lions built an early 12-5 lead before threes from Brittany Casady and Colleen Schneider and two free throws from Jessica Koch put the Griffons ahead 13-12.
That's when Apon began to heat up as she scored the next eight points over the next 3 minutes, 17 seconds on two 3s and a pair of free throws for a seven-point Lion lead with 10:35 remaining.
After the Griffons scored five straight to come within two, Apon again answered with a 3-pointer and Lovejoy converted a three-point play that gave the Lions a 26-18 lead with 6:24 left in the first half.
The Lions led 26-20 when Apon put on a show for the crowd at Leggett & Platt by hitting the Lions' next five shots, all from long distance. The result was a personal 15-3 run by Apon for a 41-23 lead with 2:12 left in the opening half.
Southern went on to a 46-30 advantage at the half.
The Lions were never seriously threatened in the second half and fittingly Apon's school-record tying ninth three gave the Lions (12-9, 6-8 MIAA) their largest lead of the night at 69-40 with 9:32 left.
