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The Lady Bear Necessities
- Missouri State women's basketball continues its three-game home stand on Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m.) when the Lady Bears welcome Murray State to Great Southern Bank Arena. MoState leads the all-time series, 6-2, including a 3-1 record at home in Springfield.
- Missouri State secured its first conference win of the season on Thursday night with a 57-55 win over Belmont. Sarah Linthacum led the way with a game-high 17 points, while Kiley Bess pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds.
- MoState has been extremely successful on its home court, owning a 30-5 record at Great Southern Bank Arena under Beth Cunningham. This season, the Lady Bears are 5-0 at home and own a +15.2 scoring margin, +10.2 rebounding margin and are holding opponents to 53.0 points/game.
- MoState ranks 13th nationally in three-point field goal percentage this season, shooting at a .381 (83-218) clip from beyond the arc. Three Lady Bears have at least 15 3FG - Daniels (24), Rocca (19) and Bekemeier (18).
- Lacy Stokes (Sr., Mount Vernon, Mo.) continues to do it all for Missouri State from the point guard position. Stokes leads MoState in scoring (12.4 ppg), assists (53), steals (32), free throw percentage (.818) and minutes (34.5 mpg). She also ranks in the top 50 nationally in FTM (63 - 28th) and FTA (77- 38th).
- The Lady Bears have been extremely balanced on offense this season. Five Lady Bears are averaging at least 9.0 points/game.Through the first 13 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.
- It's important for MSU to settle in early and produce a strong first-half performance as the Lady Bears are 9-1 this season when leading at the half. When trailing at the half, MoState is 0-3.
- Missouri State's bench play has been important this season with the Lady Bears owning a 7-0 record on the year when leading in bench scoring. MoState ranks 122nd nationally in bench points per game (22.0). Kaemyn Bekemeier (So., Republic, Mo.) is the top producer off the bench, scoring 9.5 ppg and shooting .526 from the field and .545 from three.
- In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 31-4 when scoring 70+ points, 38-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 29-0 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
Missouri State leads the all-time series 6-2 against Murray State, including a 3-1 record at home in Springfield. The two teams met three times a year ago, including in the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament.
In last year's meeting in Springfield, Murray State used a 16-0 run in the fourth quarter to hand Missouri State a 95-89 loss, the Lady Bears' first loss to the Racers since they joined the MVC. Current Lady Bears
Kyrah Daniels (18 pts),
Lacy Stokes (16 pts) and
Paige Rocca (13 points) all scored in double figures in a game that saw 12 lead changes and 6 ties.
The two teams faced off again in the quarterfinals of the MVC Touranment. With the Lady Bears trailing by one, Stokes was fouled as she drove to the basket with 0:01 remaining and knocked down both free throws to send MoState to the semifinals. Stokes finished the game with 17 points, four assists and four steals.
