The Lady Bear NecessitiesÂ
- Missouri State women's basketball stays on the road for the second game of its two-game road swing through Illinois. MoState leads the all-time series against Illinois State, 50-36, which includes a 23-20 record on the road in Normal. The squads have traded wins over the last seven contests.Â
- In eight true road games this season, Kyrah Daniels (So., Highlands Ranch, Colo.) leads the Lady Bears with 16.4 points/game. On the road, Missouri State is shooting .466 from the field and .361 from beyond the arc.
- Lainie Douglas (Fr., Overland Park, Kan.) was named MVC Freshman of the Week for the first time in her career on Monday for her performance in wins against Drake and Northern Iowa. The 6-3 forward averaged 11.5 points/game, 4.5 rebounds/game and shot .600 (9-15) from the field in 14.8 minutes/game. She is also coming off a career performance at Bradley on Friday night, in which she poured in a career-high 17 points on 8-for-10 from the field in just 15 minutes on the floor.
- Sarah Linthacum (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo.) has been incredibly efficient for the Lady Bears this season in the post. Her .561 field goal percentage (105-187) leads the team and ranks 30th nationally. She is MoState's third-leading scorer at 11.5 points/game and leads the team with 48 offensive rebounds.
- 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 (12.8 ppg), assists (77), steals (46), free throw percentage (.780) and minutes (34.0 mpg).Â
- Spectacular Sophomores - Sophomores Kaemyn Bekemeier (10.9 ppg) and Kyrah Daniels (11.8 ppg) are two of four Lady Bears averaging double-figure points this season, and they rank first and third on the team in rebounding with 117 and 106 boards, respectively. Bekemeier ranks second in FT% (.769) and 3FG% (.404), while Daniels leads the team in 3FGM (40) and blocks (16).
- A couple of keys to success for Missouri State this season have been:
- Getting off to a quick start: 15-1 when leading at the half and are 1-3 when trailing at the break.
- Bench production: 12-0 this season when leading in bench scoring.Â
- In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 38-4 when scoring 70+ points, 43-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 33-0 when opponents score less than 60 points.Â
- Missouri State is ranked No. 23 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Women's Mid Major Top 25 poll. MoState joins fellow MVC members Belmont (No. 21) and Murray State (No. 22) in this week's poll.
- 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.Â
The SeriesÂ
Missouri State leads the all-time series 50-36 against Illinois State, which includes a 23-20 record on the road. The Lady Bears and Redbirds have traded wins over the last seven contests, with MoState owning the most recent win in the series.Â
   In the most recent meeting between the squads, Missouri State earned a five-point win on its home floor. With the game tied at 61-61 with under two minutes remaining, the Lady Bears went on a 6-1 run to end the game and secure the win.
Lacy Stokes had a tremendous game, scoring 26 points, dishing out 7 assists and collecting 7 steals.Â
   In last year's meeting in Normal, the Lady Bears tied the game late in the fourth quarter. However, over the final 4:29 of the game, the Redbirds put together a 10-3 run to earn the seven-point victory and hand MSU its first conference loss of the season. Of the current Lady Bears,
Kyrah Daniels led the way with 13 points, while Stokes had 8 assists.Â
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