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The Lady Bear Necessities
- Missouri State women's basketball returns home for a key Missouri Valley Conference weekend slate. The Lady Bears welcome the defending MVC champion Drake Bulldogs on Friday night (6:30 p.m.) as part of Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame weekend.
- The Lady Bears lead the all-time series against Drake 51-48, which includes a 32-18 record in Springfield. Drake has won the last four meetings, but Missouri State earned a 64-54 win the last time the two met in Springfield on Jan. 28, 2023.
- Missouri State is 7-0 at home this season and the Lady Bears own a 32-5 record inside Great Southern Bank Arena under Beth Cunningham. In home games this season, MoState owns a +17.3 scoring margin, a +9.6 rebounding margin and is holding opponents to 54.3 ppg. At home, Lacy Stokes owns a stellar 3.5 assist-to-turnover ratio (28 A, 8 TO).
- Sarah Linthacum (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo.) has been extremely efficient for the Lady Bears in the post. She leads Missouri State with a .558 (87-156) field goal percentage, which ranks 4th in the MVC and 33rd nationally. Across MoState's five-game win streak, Linthacum has gone 33-47 (.702) from the field and averaged 14.2 points/game.
- Lacy Stokes (Sr., Mount Vernon, Mo.) continues to do it all for Missouri State from the point guard position. Stokes leads the team in scoring (13.4 ppg), assists (68), steals (38), free throw percentage (.780) and minutes (33.5 mpg).
- Spectacular Sophomores - Sophomores Kaemyn Bekemeier (10.4 ppg) and Kyrah Daniels (11.6 ppg) are two of four Lady Bears averaging double-figure points this season, and they rank first and second on the team in rebounding with 94 and 90 boards, respectively. Bekemeier leads the way with two double-doubles on the season and a .432 (19-44) three-point field goal percentage, while Daniels leads the team in 3FGM (33) and blocks (15).
- A couple of keys to success for Missouri State this season have been:
- Getting off to a quick start: 13-1 when leading at the half and are 0-3 when trailing at the break.
- Bench production: 9-0 this season when leading in bench scoring.
- In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 35-4 when scoring 70+ points, 41-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 32-0 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 last year with a 15-5 league record. Stokes earned a spot on the preseason All-MVC first team after earning second-team honors a year ago.
The Series
Missouri State leads the all-time series 51-48 against Drake, including a 32-18 record in Springfield. The Bulldogs have won the last four meetings - Missouri State's last win in the series was on 1/28/23 in Springfield, 64-54.
The most recent meeting between the Lady Bears and Bulldogs was in last season's MVC Tournament championship game. Missouri State suffered a heart-breaking loss at the hands of Drake after overcoming a 14-point deficit to take the lead in the final seconds.
Lacy Stokes' short jumper with 2.6 seconds remaining gave MSU its first lead of the game and capped a 19-4 fourth quarter run, before Drake's Anna Miller beat the buzzer at the other end to clinch the title for the Bulldogs.
The last meeting between the two teams in Springfield was back on Jan. 28, 2023. The Lady Bears earned a 64-54 win after putting together a strong defensive effort and knocking down crucial shots from beyond the arc throughout the game. Aniya Thomas led the way for MoState with 15 points in the matchup.
