BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Missouri State women's basketball (19-11, 11-6 CUSA) won its fourth straight game with a 65-38 wire-to-wire win on the road at Western Kentucky (8-20, 4-13 CUSA) on Thursday night.
 
The Lady Bears have held back-to-back opponents under the 40-point mark for the first time since the 1974-75 season.
 
Lainie Douglas led the way with her fourth consecutive 20-point outing, posting 22 points and seven rebounds. Kaemyn Bekemier posted a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double and Maiesha Washington also logged a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
After leading by nine at the half, Missouri State continued to extend its lead with a strong second half. Out of the break, the Lady Bears made a statement with six straight points from Washington and Douglas to force an early WKU timeout as the lead stretched to 15 points. From there, the two squads traded buckets for the rest of the third with MoState steadily holding a double-digit lead to carry a 14-point advantage into the final period.
 
MoState delivered the final blow in the fourth quarter, putting the game firmly out of reach with a 12-2 run over the first five minutes of the final period to extend the lead to 24 points. After a couple of WKU buckets, the Lady Bears got three straight makes to end the game from Tyra Robinson, Victoria Dixon and Kendal Brueggen to put the exclamation point on a 27-point, 65-38, road victory.
 
The first half saw a closer matchup, but the Lady Bears never surrendered the lead to WKU. After the Lady Toppers tied the game twice early, Washington and Bekemeier combined for five consecutive points to give MoState a two-possession lead. Two Douglas buckets to in the final few minutes gave the Lady Bears a five-point lead after one. Missouri State grabbed 20 rebounds in the first quarter, 10 on the offensive glass, and held WKU to 27 percent from the field in the quarter.
 
Western Kentucky gave its best effort of the night to get back within striking distance in the second quarter, pulling back within two points of the Lady Bears at the midway point of the period. MoState responded quickly with a 7-0 surge that consisted of an Audrey Hopkins jumper and a Bekemeier three and layup. Washington got the last basket of the frame to make it a nine-point, 27-18, lead at the break for MoState.
 
Missouri State was plus-20 on the glass (54-34) and won the battle in the paint (36-22). The Lady Bears shot 37 percent (23-63) from the field, 24 percent (4-17) from three and 88 percent (15-17) from the line.
 
The Lady Bears close out the regular season at Middle Tennessee on Saturday, March 7. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.