EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Missouri State women's basketball (12-4, 4-1 MVC) earned its first conference road win with an 84-57 wire-to-wire victory at Evansville (4-12, 0-5 MVC) on Friday night. 
 
It was all Lady Bears from the jump in this one as Kyrah Daniels got the scoring started and Missouri State quickly went ahead 7-0. After Evansville's first basket of the night, the Lady Bears answered with six more points to go ahead 13-2 with around four minutes remaining. The Purple Aces went on a nine-point surge to cut the MoState advantage back to two points, but that's as close as they would ever get. Kaemyn Bekemeier then knocked down a triple and connected on a jumper, before a Paige Rocca jumper capped the scoring in the period and gave Missouri State a 20-13 lead after one.
 
As both teams settled in, the Lady Bears extended the lead to double figures for the first time on back-to-back layups from Sarah Linthacum and Bekemeier. MoState then slipped up and went on a 2:19 scoring drought that allowed the Purple Aces to creep back within five. Once a couple of Lacy Stokes free throws ended the dry spell, Missouri State finished the half on a 10-0 run with six of those points coming courtesy of Stokes. 
 
Linthacum led the way in the first half with 12 points, while Stokes followed close behind with 11 points as the Lady Bears led 42-27 at the break. Missouri State outscored Evansville 30-8 in the paint in the first half, while forcing 12 turnovers and owning 14 assists on 18 made field goals. 
 
Coming out of halftime, the Lady Bears continued to create separation as they started the third period with a 9-0 run that included triples from Rocca and Daniels. Later in the quarter, Bekemeier drove to the basket twice and came away with points to give MoState its largest lead of the night at 29 points with 3:42 remaining in the third. 
 
Leading 68-45 to start the fourth quarter, the Lady Bears went to work down low, with Linthacum and Lainie Douglas combining for the first eight points of the final period to stretch the lead back to 26 points. With the game firmly in hand, Missouri State held Evansville to 27 percent (3-for-11) from the field in the final 10 minutes to secure its first conference road win of the season. 
 
Linthacum led the way with a game-high 19 points on 9-of-11 from the field, in addition to six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Bekemeier followed with 14 points and a game-high seven rebounds off the bench. Stokes was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and tallied 11 points and dished out six assists. Rocca was the final Lady Bear in double figures with 10 points. Daniels also posted a career-high six assists. 
 
As a team, the Lady Bears outscored the Purple Aces in the paint, 56-16, and turned 25 Evansville turnovers into 32 points. MoState had a season-high 27 assists and pulled down 16 offensive rebounds. For the game, Missouri State shot 51 percent (35-69) from the field, 26 percent (5-19) from three and 56 percent (9-16) from the charity stripe. 
 
Missouri State closes out the weekend trip at Indiana State on Sunday, January 19. Tipoff against the Sycamores is set for 1:00 p.m. CT and the game will stream on ESPN+.