Starting Five - Storylines for the Valpo Series
1) The 25th-ranked Missouri State Lady Bears (9-2, 5-0 Missouri Valley Conference) head to the Hoosier State this weekend for games at Valparaiso (6-6, 2-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Missouri State is shooting for a 6-0 MVC start for the sixth time in school history, most recently a 10-0 opening to league play in 2019. MSU has trailed for a total of five minutes, 57 seconds in its five Valley games.
2) Missouri State is 59-9 overall since Dec. 20, 2018, ranking 10th nationally in total wins since that date and seventh in winning percentage (.868). Six teams ahead of the Lady Bears on the wins list have been ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll over that span.
3) The Lady Bears are 25-4 in their last 29 true road games and 32-6 in the last 38 games away from home. Missouri State's 11 true road victories last season ranked fifth nationally.
4) Missouri State has won the rebounding battle in nine of 11 games this year and 35 of the last 41, with a plus-10.4 margin this season ahead of the school-record pace (+9.9) and a .796 defensive rebounding percentage that ranks second nationally after leading the NCAA last year with a .773 mark.
5) No team has scored more than 72 points against MSU this season despite the Lady Bears playing nine of 11 games against teams rated in the top 70 of the NET (Jan. 28). Missouri State ranks first or second in the MVC and in the top 45 nationally in scoring defense (57.7), field goal defense (.361) and 3-point defense (.257), and has faced top-27 scoring offenses in Maryland (1st - 92.0), FGCU (16th - 81.6) and Drake (27th - 78.9). MSU has held four opponents under 28 percent shooting.
The Opponent
Valparaiso is 6-6 overall and 2-3 in MVC play, and has not played since Jan. 19. The Crusaders own a pair of Big Ten road wins at Illinois and Purdue, and have three double-figure scorers in Carie Weinman (14.1), Shay Frederick (13.6) and Grace White (12.1). Frederick leads the MVC in assists, while Weinman and White rank 1-3 in steals. VU takes nearly 50 percent of its shots from 3-point range, and averages 65.7 points while shooting 40.1 percent overall, 30 percent from beyond the arc and 72.2 percent at the foul line. The Crusaders allow 66.1 points and are minus-9.7 on the glass.
Series History
Missouri State is 6-0 against Valparaiso, with all six meetings coming since the Crusaders joined the MVC for the 2017-18 season. The Lady Bears have won the three games in the ARC by an average score of 74.7-62.
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