SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State women's basketball (18-11, 10-6 CUSA) won its third straight game with a dominant 69-38 win over FIU (17-10, 10-6 CUSA) here on Thursday night at Great Southern Bank Arena.
 
Lainie Douglas led the way with her third consecutive 20-point outing, posting 20 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Kaemyn Bekemeier followed with 13 points and nine rebounds while Kendal Brueggen had 12 points and five boards to round out MoState's double-digit scorers.
 
The Lady Bears were stifling on defense, holding FIU to .190 (11-58) shooting from the field and .111 (2-18) from three-point range in the game. MoState was plus-27 on the glass and held the Panthers to their lowest scoring total of the year. It also marked the third-fewest points allowed by the Lady Bears to a Division I opponent inside Great Southern Bank Arena.
 
After a good first half that gave the Lady Bears a nine-point lead at the intermission, Missouri State dominated the second half on both ends of the floor. The Lady Bears scored the first 11 points of the second half stretching all the way to the 3:47 mark to grow their lead to 20 points. After a single FIU bucket to stop the run, MoState answered right back as Angel Scott provided a huge spark off the bench, knocking down two treys along with one from Brueggen and a Douglas layup to quickly put 11 more points up to lead by 29.
 
Early in the fourth quarter with a commanding 25-point lead, Bekemeier and Douglas scored 13 straight between the two of them over a five-minute span to increase the MoState lead to a game-high 38 points. FIU scored seven of its 12 points in the quarter in the final 1:16 as the Lady Bears cruised to a 31-point victory in their home finale.
 
Missouri State held the Panthers to .129 (4-31) from the field and .111 (1-9) from three in the second half as the Lady Bears outscored FIU 38-16 over the final 20 minutes of the game.
 
The first half was much more even across the board as FIU grabbed the early lead in Springfield, but a couple of Douglas jumpers sandwiched a Bekemeier free throw to give the lead back to the home side. Later in the first quarter with the Lady Bears trailing by three, Brueggen and Audrey Hopkins sank back-to-back triples to flip the lead to the home squad by three at the end of one.
 
Douglas exerted her dominance in the second quarter, scoring the first seven points of the frame and nine in the quarter for the Lady Bears to eventually put them up by four with 6:52 on the clock. MoState continued to chip away in the slobber knocker of a first half to stretch the lead to 11 points with just under two minutes remaining and went on to lead by nine at the break, 31-22.
 
The Lady Bears will close out the regular season next week with two road games at Western Kentucky (March 5, 6:30 p.m.) and Middle Tennessee (March 7, 2:00 p.m.). Both games will stream on ESPN+.