After winning its 10th Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship on Sunday, the Lady Bears learned that they’ll be headed to the Dallas Regional to take on Texas A&M in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
It is MSU’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2006.
No. 13 MSU and No. 4 Texas A&M will tipoff at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas, with the winner meeting the Florida State/Middle Tennessee winner on Monday. Florida State is the 5-seed, going 23-7 in the regular season. Middle Tennessee beat MSU 70-54 back in December.
Six times in tournament history the 13-seed has beaten a 4-seed. The first time it happened was in 1994 when Texas A&M upset Florida. Marist pulled off a 13 vs. 4 upset in 2012.
The Lady Bears are led by MVC Player of the Year Tyonna Snow, who was also named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year. Snow, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, averaged 16.6 PPG and 7 RPG this season for MSU.
Snow was also named the MVC Tournament MVP. Her 548 points entering the NCAA Tournament is the 13th highest single-season total in program history and the most points any Lady Bear has scored since Casey Garrison donned maroon and white.
Classmate Kenzie Williams averaged 13.8 PPG and was also an All-MVC selection; Williams (1,627) and Snow (1,589) rank eighth and ninth on the all-time Lady Bears scoring list.
Snow is the all-time leader in steals (350) and is one steal away from tying Tina Robbins single-season.
Missouri State enters the tournament with wins in 15 of its last 17 games and a 24-9 record overall, but the Lady Bears will have its hands full with Texas A&M, which finished third in the SEC.
This will be Kellie Harper's 4th NCAA Tournament appearance as a coach. She went twice with Western Carolina and once with NC State.
