SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State women's basketball (17-11, 9-6 CUSA) won its second game in a row with a 60-55 victory over Sam Houston (16-10, 9-6 CUSA) here on Tuesday night at Great Southern Bank Arena.
 
Lainie Douglas led the way for the Lady Bears with her second consecutive 20-point outing, pouring in 20 points to go along with six rebounds. Her post mate Maiesha Washington scored 13 points and was the game's leader in both rebounds (9) and assists (4).
 
Best known for being great in the second half this season, Missouri State got off to a fast start in this one maintained its lead throughout the game. After an opening bucket by Sam Houston, which was the Bearkats' only lead of the game, Douglas scored MoState's firs six points and Faith Lee added a jumper to put the Lady Bears up by six. Later in the period, a Kendal Brueggen jumper and a JaNyla Bush free throw gave MoState a double-figure advantage, but Sam Houston got a late jumper to fall as the Lady Bears led 20-12 after one.
 
The squads traded bucket for bucket to open the second quarter to keep the MoState lead between six and eight points for the first four-and-a-half minutes of the period. After that, both squads went cold and neither team scored for over three minutes, before another Bush free throw snapped the dry spell and propelled MoState to a 7-2 run to end the half with the Lady Bears leading 35-24.
 
Out of the break, both teams had their worst quarter of the night in scoring and shooting percentage. The Lady Bears did come out with the first punch, scoring six straight points to increase the lead to a game-high 17 points with 6:45 on the clock in the third. A Brueggen trey and Washington layup helped break up some of Sam Houston's scoring late in the frame to give the Lady Bears a narrow one-point advantage in the third quarter.
 
Holding on to a double-figure lead until near the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter, the Lady Bears had to fend off a final surge from the Bearkats. An 8-1 Sam Houston run suddenly made it a four-point game with under a minute left to play, but Missouri State was able to knock down a few free throws in crunch time to keep it a two-possession game and win by five points, 60-55.
 
As a team, the Lady Bears were plus-10 on the glass and won the battle in the paint, 30-26. MoState also had five blocked shots on the night and held the lead for 37:52. The Lady Bears shot .442 (19-43) from the field, .222 (2-9) from three and .690 (20-29) from the charity stripe.
 
Missouri State will close out its regular season home slate on Thursday (Feb. 26) as the Lady Bears welcome FIU to Springfield. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.