The Lady Bear Necessities
- Missouri State women's basketball will host Minnesota in the second round of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Sunday afternoon (2:00 p.m.). MoState has made 10 consecutive postseason appearances and this marks the Lady Bears' second straight season in the WBIT field. On Thursday night, the Lady Bears hosted a postseason game in Springfield for the first time since the 2014-15.
- The Lady Bears and Minnesota have met just in the programs' histories, a 77-69 win on the road against the 23rd-ranked Golden Gophers on Nov. 5, 2019.
- MoState racked up seven MVC postseason accolades, highlighted by specialty awards for Beth Cunningham (Coach of the Year), Stokes (Defensive Player of the Year) and Kaemyn Bekemeier (6th Player of the Year). Stokes also represented the Lady Bears on the All-MVC first team. Full awards breakdown on pg 4.
- Stokes (Sr., Mount Vernon, Mo.) continunes to get it done on both ends of the floor for MoState. The 5-4 point guard tops the MVC and ranks 15th in the nation in steals (89) and 22nd in steals/game (2.6) this season. Stokes also leads MoState in scoring (14.4 ppg) and assists (144), and her 89 steals rank 10th in a single season in program history. Stokes has posted 11 consecutive double-digit scoring performances and she has scored 20 or more points in seven of the last 11 games.
- Linthacum (Sr., Jefferson City, Mo.) and Lainie Douglas (Fr., Overland Park, Kan.) make up MoState's dynamic duo in the post. The two are shooting a combined 53.7 percent (269-501) from the field. Linthacum posted her team-leading fifth double-double with 15 pts, 12 reb. against ORU on Thursday.
- Spectacular Sophomores - Sophomores Kaemyn Bekemeier (11.3 ppg) and Kyrah Daniels (11.9 ppg) are two of four Lady Bears averaging double-figure points this season, and they rank second and third on the team in rebounding with 196 and 172 boards, respectively. Bekemeier is 1st on the team in 3FG% (.402) 2nd in FT% (.780), while Daniels leads the team in 3FGM (63) and 2nd in blocks (29).
- Missouri State ranks 41st nationally in bench points per game with 23.3. The duo of Bekemeier and Douglas has accounted for 78.6 percent (622 out of 791) of MoState's bench points this season.
- Paige Rocca (Sr., Iowa City, Iowa) ranks 3rd in program history with 107 career wins, trailing only Brice Calip (122) and Sydney Wilson (119).
- A couple of keys to success for Missouri State this season have been:
- Getting off to a quick start: 23-3 when leading at the half and are 2-5 when trailing at the break.
- Bench production: 20-3 this season when leading in bench scoring.
- Balanced offense: 16-2 this season when four or more players score in double figures.
- In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 47-4 when scoring 70+ points, 49-1 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 37-0 when opponents score less than 60 points.
The Series
Missouri State and Minnesota have met just one time in the programs' histories. The Lady Bears traveled to Minneapolis to open the 2019-20 season and earned a 77-69 victory over the No. 23-ranked Golden Gophers. MoState led wire-to-wire as Brice Calip led the way with 21 points and six assists, followed by Jasmine Franklin with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Alexa Willard was also in double figures with 13 points, meanwhile current Lady Bears assistant coach Abby (Hipp) Emmert tallied six points and three rebounds against Minnesota. The game was the first of the Coach Mox era.
WBIT First Round Recap: Lady Bears' Record-Setting Performance
Missouri State defeated Oral Roberts 107-76 in the first round of the WBIT on Thursday night. MoState's 107 points were the most in a postseason game in program history, surpassing the previous mark of 104 points against Washington on March 26, 2001 in the Elite 8. It also marked the most points the Lady Bears had scored since January 27, 2019 against Valparaiso (108).
The Lady Bears became the first team to hit the century mark in just the second year of the WBIT. Missouri State also set single-game tournament records in three-pointers (14) and assists (27). Meanwhile,
Lacy Stokes tied the WBIT single-game record with 10 assists and became the first player with 20 points and 10 assists in a WBIT game.
