KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Missouri State Lady Bears held Wichita State without a field goal for the game's final eight minutes Saturday afternoon on the way to a 66-57 victory over the Shockers at T-Mobile Center in the 91st all-time meeting between the former Missouri Valley Conference rivals.

The Lady Bears moved to 4-0 this season to match the 2019-20 team for the best start to a campaign since the 1997-98 club opened 12-0. It marked just the sixth time in program history that the Lady Bears have started a season with at least four consecutive victories.

MoState used a 15-3 run midway through the first quarter to take a 19-12 lead and never trailed again, though the Shockers (1-3) consistently fought back to tie the score multiple times.

Cady Pauley's basket at the 7:38 mark in the second period made it 26-18, and WSU rallied for a 34-32 deficit at the halftime break. 

Faith Lee scored Missouri State's first six points of the second half on the way a team-high 14 in the game, but Wichita tied it at 40-40 with 6:43 on the clock. Pauley drained a trey 39 seconds later to spark an 8-0 run, and Zoe Canfield's triple at the 3:45 mark gave the Lady Bears their largest lead yet at 52-42.

Wichita State countered with an 8-0 run that was stopped when Maycee James grabbed a steal, scored and converted a traditional 3-point play to make it 55-50 after three quarters.

The Shockers began the final period on a 5-0 run to tie again, freshman Maiesha Washington made a layup to regain the lead at 57-55 with 7:56 remaining, and the MoState defense cranked up the intensity from there, holding WSU without a field goal for the remainder of the contest.

A pair of Lainie Douglas free throws were the only points for more than five minutes, WSU hit a pair from the line for 59-57 with 2:34 left, and James responded with her second and-1 of the game to start a closing 7-0 run for the Lady Bears.

James and Douglas scored 10 points apiece while Pauley and Washington each tallied eight for a balanced offense that saw nine players score and continued an early season trend of getting to the foul line, going 20-for-24 from the charity stripe.

The MSU defense forced 23 Wichita State turnovers and grabbed 10 steals, including three each by James and Pauley, helping the Lady Bears improve to 40-0 under Beth Cunningham when holding the opposition below 60 points.

Kaemyn Bekemeier hauled in a game-high 10 rebounds to help MSU lead 35-31 on the glass.

The Lady Bears return to action Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. against Georgia Southern (1-2) at Great Southern Bank Arena. Tickets can be purchased at this link.