TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - For the second time this season, the Indiana State women's basketball team gave their all against the Missouri State Bears, the preseason Missouri Valley Conference favorites, and came up just short, falling 63-50 in front of 3,576 fans inside Hulman Center.

With the loss, ISU falls to an even 11-11 on the season and 5-6 in the conference, while MSU improves to 17-7 overall and 8-4 in MVC play. The Sycamores also assisted in the fight against breast cancer on Thursday night, raising money in several ways, including auctioning off their pink jerseys for more than a combined $2,000, for the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation.

It was a back-and-forth first half on Thursday, with the teams trading leads 10 times in the opening 20 minutes of action while also having the score tied on five other occasions. The Sycamores took their largest lead of the half, at 10-7 with 14:22 left until halftime, when junior Shannon Thomas converted a layup on a pass from senior Kelsie Cooley. Missouri State's largest lead was also three points in the first half, coming on four separate scoring plays.

The Bears took a one-point lead into the locker room at the break, at 30-29 over the Sycamores. Juniors Brittany Schoen and Shannon Thomas led ISU at the half with seven points each, while Thomas and Cooley both grabbed seven boards in the opening 20 minutes of play. MSU junior Casey Garrison, the 2009-10 MVC Player of the Year, led all scorers at the half with eight.

After MSU's Christiana Shorter and ISU junior Deja Mattox traded baskets to open the second half, the Bears went on a 6-0 run to stretch their lead from 32-31 with 19:09 left to play to 38-31 with 13:20 left on the clock. During that decisive period of the game, the Sycamores went 0-for-7 from the field while the Bears grabbed five offensive rebounds.

The Sycamores never went away on Thursday, using a late 9-2 run over just 90 seconds of play to cut the MSU lead from 12 to five points, capping their run on a 3-pointer from Schoen to make the score 55-50 MSU with 3:14 remaining.

Garrison showed why she's touted as the best player in the Missouri Valley Conference, however, as after the Bears called a timeout to stop the momentum ISU was gaining late in the contest, the Missouri State junior knocked down a pair of tough, contested jumpers to push MSU's lead back to nine points.

For the game, Schoen led the Sycamores with 13 points, going 3-for-8 from three-point range, while Thomas recorded her seventh double-double of the season, going for 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. The double-double was Thomas' fifth in MVC play this year and 14^th for her Sycamore career. Cooley and Mattox added seven points each, while sophomore Taylor Whitley totaled six points, six rebounds and three assists. For the sixth time in MVC play, freshman Anna Munn scored all of ISU's points off the bench, chipping in six points over 18 minutes on the court.

As a team, the Sycamores shot just 28.6% (16-for-56) on Thursday, including 5-for-18 (27.8%) from three-point range and 13-for-23 (56.5%) from the free-throw line.

Garrison led all scorers with 18 points, while junior Jasmine Malone recorded her second double-double of the year, with 12 points and 10 boards.

The Sycamores return to the court on Saturday, as both ISU basketball teams are in action inside Hulman Center. The women's team takes the court against Wichita State following the men's game against Drake, with tipoff set for the men's game at 1:05 p.m. on Fan Appreciation Day. All tickets to the doubleheader are free at the Hulman Center Ticket Office.