SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State women's basketball overcame an early 11-point deficit to take down visiting Georgia Southern 69-58 here on Tuesday night at Great Southern Bank Arena in the first-ever meeting between the two squads.
 
The Lady Bears improved to 5-0, tying the fourth best start in program history. Missouri State, now 2-0 at home this season, improved to 42-6 in home games under the leadership of Beth Cunningham.
 
Lainie Douglas powered the Missouri State offense, pouring in a career-high 21 points (7-11 FG, 7-15 FT), while matching her career high with nine boards. Sixteen of her 21 points on the night came in the second half. Kaemyn Bekemeier also had a great performance with a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double, marking the fourth of her career.
 
MoState had to battle from the opening tipoff in this one as the Lady Bears surrendered a 10-0 run to begin the game. Missouri State missed its first four shots of the night and went 3-for-15 (.200) from the field in the opening frame as the Eagles (1-3) grew the lead to a game-high 11 points with 3:35 remaining in the first quarter. The defense helped the Lady Bears stay in the fight while the offense worked to find a rhythm, as MSU trailed by eight after a quarter.
 
Georgia Southern threw the first big punch in the second quarter, sinking a trey at the 5:30 to stretch the visitors' lead back to 10 points. MoState didn't stay down for long as Cady Pauley drained back-to-back triples to pull the Lady Bears within four and get the crowd of 2,080 at Great Southern Bank Arena on its feet as the Eagles called a timeout. It kept raining threes in Springfield as Zoe Canfield and JaNyla Bush treys sparked a 10-0 run to give Missouri State's its first lead of the night and extend it to 29-25.
 
Holding on to a one-point lead at the intermission, 30-29, Missouri State pulled away in the second half. The Lady Bears took full advantage of entering the bonus early in the third quarter, converting 12 of their 14 free throw attempts in the period as they outscored the Eagles 22-13 and outrebounded the visitors 17-5 in the frame.
 
MoState's defense continued to shine in the fourth quarter as both squads navigated having players in foul trouble. The Lady Bears had their best shooting quarter of the night at .545 (6-of-11), while holding the Eagles to 5-of-22 (.227) down the stretch to secure an 11-point victory and remain undefeated on the season.
 
Missouri State held Georgia Southern to 22 points below its average (80.0 coming into the game) and limited the Eagles to 3-for-32 (.094) from beyond the arc (came in averaging 9.0 3FGM per game). The Lady Bear defense also grabbed 58 rebounds on the night (plus-22) which tied for the 11^th- most boards in a game in program history.
 
The Lady Bears return to the road on Saturday, Nov. 22 at Tulsa. Tipoff against the Golden Hurricane is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.