LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Missouri State women’s basketball secured a 52-47 season-opening victory at Little Rock here on Monday night, marking MSU’s fourth consecutive win over the Trojans.
The game came down to the wire despite a fast start by the Lady Bears with a couple of key defensive stops and clutch Lady Bear free throws in the final quarter solidifying a road win for MSU.
After a stretch of swapping five-point runs in the fourth period, the two squads were locked into a five-point game with 6:11 remaining. With few shots dropping over the next few minutes, Little Rock strung together four consecutive points to make it a one-point contest with 1:03 to play.
On its next two possessions, Little Rock missed a jumper and three-pointer with MSU grabbing the defensive rebounds to force the Trojans to foul down the stretch. Missouri State went 4-for-6 from the line in the final 0:34 to capture a 52-47 road victory at the Jack Stephens Center.
Despite the comeback effort from the Trojans in the second half, the Lady Bears couldn’t have gotten the season off to a better start, scoring the first 10 points of the game and never relinquishing the lead on the road. Transfer Lacy Stokes jumpstarted the MSU offense by converting an and-1 opportunity and tacked on an additional free throw, before Indya Green and Kennedy Taylor combined for three layups to give the visitors the early lead.
Little Rock connected on its first field goal of the night at the 4:42 mark, before freshman Kyrah Daniels made an immediate impact off the bench with a fastbreak layup and a three-pointer to push the Lady Bear lead to 13 points. MSU finished off the first period leading 17-5 as Green buried a jumper with 0:02 on the clock.
The Trojans found some offense in the second quarter, putting together an eight-point surge over a 2:50 span to outscore the Lady Bears 14-9 in the period. Early in the quarter, Stokes and transfer Angel Scott drained threes to give MSU its largest lead of the game at 14 points, but the aforementioned Little Rock run eventually cut the Missouri State lead to five points.
Stokes put a stop to the Trojans scoring with a jumper in the paint to give the Lady Bears a 26-19 lead at halftime.
Out of the halftime break, the Trojans didn’t go down without a fight as they cut the Lady Bear lead to three points early in the third. However, the Lady Bears responded multiple times in the period, continually pushing the lead back to eight points. With less than a minute and half remaining in the third, Scott knocked down her second triple of the night off a beautiful dish from Stokes and Stokes later hit a jumper to make it a nine-point, 41-32, game with 10 minutes remaining.
The wire-to-wire victory marked the first season-opening win under second-year head coach Beth Cunningham and marked the first consecutive road wins for MSU in the history of the series.
Stokes led the offensive efforts for MSU with 18 points on 6-for-13 shooting and five assists in her first official game in a Lady Bear uniform. Daniels joined Stokes in double figures with 10 points on the night. Three Lady Bears (Green, Masogayo and Taylor) each had a game-high seven rebounds with Green adding a team-high three steals.
Collectively, MSU held the advantage on the boards (42-26) and in bench points (16-13).
Missouri State stays on the road next week as the Lady Bears travel to Saint Louis on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Tipoff against the Billikens is set for 7 p.m.
