SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- As part of their annual Alumni Day, the Missouri State Lady Bears will pay tribute to MSU’s 2001 NCAA Final Four team, Sunday, February 6, when they take onthe University of Northern Iowa Panthersat 2:05 p.m., in a pivotal Missouri Valley Conference match-up at JQH Arena.
Currently, more than 20 former Lady Bears, coaches and staff members have committed to attending the contest. Each will be recognized in a special halftime ceremony that will feature a video presentation commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Lady Bears’ magicaltrip to the program’s second Final Four and Jackie Stiles’s run to the NCAA’s all-time scoring record.
The 2000-01 Lady Bears went 29-6, earning a share of the MVC’s regular-season title before winning the league’s postseason tournament in Springfield. MSU went on to post NCAA Tournament victories over Toledo and Rutgers in the first two rounds, then knocked off top-seeded Duke and Washington in the West Regional in Spokane to advance to the Final Four in St. Louis.
Stiles was named AP Player of the Year and captured the Wade Trophy as the top player in Division I women’s basketball. She also won the Honda-Broderick Cup, which recognized her as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. On March 1, 2001,the three-time All-Americansurpassed Patricia Hoskins’s NCAA career scoring record and went on to conclude her MSU career with 3,393 points.
Ticketsfornext Sunday'scontest and forall four remaining Lady Bear home games can be purchased by telephone at (417) 836-7678, onlineat www.MissouriStateTix.com, or byvisiting the Chevy Pickup Window at the JQH Arena Box Office.
-MSU-
