A portion of Missouri State’s 2016-17 women’s basketball schedule was revealed Friday with the announcement of the 2016 GCI Great Alaska Shootout field.
The Lady Bears open play in the nation’s oldest continuously running in-season college basketball tournament against Southern Cal on Nov. 22 inside the Alaska Airlines Center, and are joined by Alaska Anchorage and Portland on the opposite side of the bracket. Winners of Tuesday’s games play in the Wednesday, Nov. 23, championship game of the 39th annual Shootout, with the losers squaring off in the third-place contest. Game times will be announced later this summer.
USC went 19-13 last season and finished eighth in the Pac-12 with a 6-12 league mark. UAA was the NCAA Division II runner-up in 2016 with a 38-3 overall record. Portland was 3-27 last year and 1-17 in the West Coast Conference.
Missouri State finished 24-10 last season and advanced to the 14th NCAA Tournament in school history. The Lady Bears return nine players from that squad, including three that started at least 11 games, for head coach Kellie Harper’s fourth season in Springfield.
Missouri State is expected to finalize the remainder of its non-conference schedule later this summer.
