ARLINGTON, Texas – Missouri State women's basketball (2-0) earned its first road win of the season, defeating UT Arlington 69-53 on Friday night.
 
After a triple as time expired in the third quarter and a bucket early in the fourth cut the Missouri State lead down to eight points, the Lady Bears responded with a dominant fourth quarter performance. Transfer Maycee James connected on a jumper at the 8:58 mark to light the spark for the Lady Bears, who reeled off 14 consecutive points to leave no doubt as the lead stretched to a game-high 22 points. The MoState defense held UTA scoreless for over four minutes during that surge and to just 21.4 percent shooting from the field in the entire quarter to put the game away and secure a road win.
 
The start of the game saw both squads working hard to gain momentum, and for the Lady Bears the first spark of the night came from senior Cady Pauley as she knocked down a triple as time expired in the first quarter. That shot gave MoState a narrow two-point advantage but shifted the momentum in favor of the visiting squad.   
 
On the other side of the quarter break, MoState reeled off the first 10 points of the second period to cap a 13-0 run as the Lady Bears extended their lead to 12 points. The big run came courtesy of four starters with Kaemyn Bekemeier knocking down a jumper, followed by free throws from Pauley and buckets from Faith Lee and Lainie Douglas. After swapping a few baskets, the freshmen stepped up for Missouri State with Audrey Hopkins hitting a three-pointer, MSU's fourth of the first half, and Maiesha Washington connecting on a jumper to push the lead up to 14 points.
 
UTA wasn't going away though, as the Lady Mavs ended the first half on a 7-0 spurt to make it a seven-point, 33-26, game at the intermission.
 
The Lady Mavs (0-2) kept the momentum going early in third quarter, using a 5-2 run at the start of the period to trim MoState's lead down to four points. Missouri State responded in a big way, putting together a 10-point run to stretch the lead back to a more comfortable 14-point advantage at 45-31. The remainder of the third quarter was evenly matched, but five straight points from UTA that included a three as time ran out cut the MSU lead back to single digits, 49-40, as the game headed to the final period.
 
Lee led the way for the Lady Bears with 20 points (10-20 FG), followed closely by Bekemeier with 19 points and a team-high nine rebounds. As a team, Missouri State outrebounded the Lady Mavs 39-26 and collected 10 steals on the night. MoState shot 44 percent from the field, 36 percent from three and 71 percent from the free throw line.
 
In the Beth Cunningham era, the Lady Bears are now 38-0 when holding opponents below 60 points.
 
Missouri State continues its road trip next week as the Lady Bears head to SEMO on Tuesday, Nov. 11. Tipoff against the Redhawks is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.