The Lady Bear Necessities
- Missouri State women's basketball opens Missouri Valley Conference action on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m.) with a road contest at UIC. The all-time series between the Lady Bears and Flames is tied 3-3, but MoState is 0-3 against UIC in Chicago. The squads split last season's two meetings.
- Missouri State is ranked No. 22 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Women's Mid Major Top 25 poll. The Lady Bears are one of three MVC teams in this week's poll - Drake (19), Missouri State (22) and UNI (24).
- MoState ranks 6th nationally in three-point field goal percentage this season, shooting at a .393 (75-191) clip from beyond the arc. Three Lady Bears have at least 15 3FG - Daniels (22), Rocca (18) and Bekemeier (16). Daniels ranks 43rd in the nation with a .423 (22-52) three-point field goal percentage.
- Lacy Stokes (Sr., Mount Vernon, Mo.) continues to do it all for Missouri State from the point guard position. Stokes leads MoState in scoring (11.8 ppg), rebounding (5.4 rpg), assists (46), steals (28) and minutes (34.4 mpg). The 5-4 guard ranks in the top 50 nationally in FTM (52 - 39th) and steals/game (2.55 - 50th).
- The Lady Bears have been extremely balanced on offense this season. Four Lady Bears are averaging at least 10.0 points/game, while Paige Rocca is right on the cusp of that mark at 8.9 points/game. Through the first 11 games of the season, seven different Lady Bears have led the team in scoring and nine players have posted at least one game with 10 or more points.
- Missouri State's bench play has been important this season as the Lady Bears are 6-0 on the year when leading in bench scoring. MoState ranks 82nd nationally in bench points per game (24.2). Kaemyn Bekemeier (So., Republic, Mo.) is the top producer off the bench, scoring 10.6 ppg and shooting .535 from the field and .533 from three.
- Earlier this month with a win over SEMO (Dec. 16), Missouri State became just the 33rd team in NCAA Division I to achieve 1,000 program wins.The Lady Bears are in their 56th season of women's collegiate basketball and own an all-time record of 1,001-642 (.609).
- In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 31-4 when scoring 70+ points, 37-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 28-0 when opponents score less than 60 points.
- Missouri State was picked to finish fifth in the MVC preseason poll for the second consecutive year. MSU finished third in the regular season a year ago with a 15-5 conference record. Stokes earned a spot on the preseason All-MVC first team after earning second-team honors a year ago, in addition to being named to the MVC All-Newcomer and All-Defensive teams.
The Series
The all-time series between Missouri State and UIC is tied 3-3, but the Lady Bears have never won on the road against the Flames - owning an 0-3 record against UIC in Chicago.
The squads split last season's two meetings with the home team winning in each matchup. In the first meeting in Springfield, the Lady Bears escaped with a one-point win, 51-50. Trailing by one with just 0:03 remaining, MoState inbounded the ball on its end of the floor and a deflected ball found its way into the hands of former Lady Bear
Jade Masogayo who laid in the eventual game-winner. UIC advanced the ball on the timeout and had a great look at the basket, but the shot came up short and the Lady Bears secured the win.
Kyrah Daniels led MSU with 15 points and two blocks in the matchup.
The rematch in Chicago was another close game as Missouri State tied it up with under a minute remaining. UIC then found the bottom of the basket to take a two-point lead before the Lady Bears came up short on their final possession and were forced to foul in the four-point loss. Four Lady Bears posted double-figure scoring performances, led by Masogayo with 15 points.
