Lady Bears NCAA Tournament Central

Wednesday, March 18

Austin, Texas

8:00 p.m.

Missouri State University

Stephen F. Austin

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Lady Bears NCAA Tournament Central

March 17, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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(16) Missouri State Lady Bears (23-12) at NCAA Tournament
NCAA Tournament	Bracket (PDF) \| Tournament Central
Location	Moody Center \| Austin, Texas
First Four	Wednesday, March 18 vs. (16) Stephen F. Austin \| W, 85-75 Box Score \| Recap \| Press Conference
First Round	Friday, March 20 vs. (1) Texas \| L, 45-87 Box Score \| Recap \| Press Conference
Missouri State	Game Notes \| Women's Basketball Home Page \| Media Guide
Opponents	Stephen F. Austin \| Texas
Follow the Lady Bears	Twitter \| Instagram \| Facebook \| #LadyBears \| #WeAreMoState
Bears Mobile App	App Store (Apple Devices) \| Google Play Store (Android Devices)

The Lady Bear Necessities

Missouri State captured the Conference USA Tournament title in its first year in the league to earn its 18th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Lady Bears have now made a postseason appearance in 11 consecutive seasons and returned to the Big Dance for the first time since 2021-22. It also marks the first appearance for Mo State under head coach Beth Cunningham.
The Lady Bears earned the outright 16 seed after defeating Stephen F. Austin in the First Four round, 85-75, on Wednesday night. Mo State will now face No. 1 Texas in the First Round on Friday afternoon (3:00 p.m., ESPN). With the win, the Lady Bears have now won an NCAA Tournament game in four straight appearances and it marked their 20th NCAA Tournament victory in program history.
Including its upcoming matchup with Texas, Missouri State has faced three of the top seven winningest programs in Division I history in Texas (3rd - 1,282), SFA (6th - 1,258) and Louisiana Tech (7th - 1,251). Mo State is 28th on that list (1,042) as one of 40 programs to achieve 1,000 program victories.
The last time head coach Beth Cunningham faced off against Texas head coach Vic Schaefer was in the 2018 national championship. Cunningham was the associate head coach at Notre Dame and Schaefer was the head coach at Mississippi State. Cunningham's Fighting Irish defeated the Bulldogs 61-58 on a last second three-pointer.
Kaemyn Bekemeier leads MoState this season with 17.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg and 65 three-pointers. The 5-9 guard is 1 of just 6 players in NCAA DI with at least 600 points and 290 rebounds, and is the shortest player to do so. She ranks 9th in Mo State single-season history with 613 points and 4th in rebounds with 292. Bekemeier was named CUSA Tournament MVP after averaging 17.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists en route to the tournament title. More information on Bekemeier on pg. 5.
The second member of MoState's dynamic duo Lainie Douglas (So., Overland Park, Kan.) currently ranks 1st in CUSA and 25th nationally with a .556 FG%. The sophomore owns 55 blocks which ranks 1st in conference and is 5th in Missouri State single-season history. Douglas helped punch Mo State's ticket to the Big Dance by posting 15 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 7 blocks (1 of 4 players with that stat line in NCAA DI this season) in the title game against top-seeded Louisiana Tech.
In the Cunningham era, Missouri State is 57-8 when scoring 70+ points, 66-5 when holding opponents to 65 points or less and 51-1 when opponents score less than 60 points. Missouri State is 1-6 this season when allowing 70 or more points.
Second-Half Adjustments - MoState is +18 on the scoreboard in the first half this season, but flips the switch at the break to own a +154 point differential against its opponents in the second half of games. MoState has scored 189 more points in the second half of games than the first half this season.