SPRINGFIELD – Jade Masogayo led four Missouri State players in double figures with 17 points to lead the Lady Bears to a dominant 73-54 victory over visiting Belmont here Friday in a key Missouri Valley Conference matchup.
Masogayo was 5-of-7 from the field and 7-for-8 at the free throw line with 5 rebounds to lead MoState (15-5, 9-2 MVC), while Kennedy Taylor and Kyrah Daniels each poured in 13 points, and Lacy Stokes added 10 points and a game-high 6 assists in a wire-to-wire victory.
Belmont (16-6, 9-2) got a game-high 19 points from Jailyn Banks, including 17-of-20 from the free throw line, the most by any Missouri State opponent this season.
The Lady Bears came out of the gates firing, sprinting to a 12-0 lead in the first four-and-a-half minutes with five different players contributing to the early run. Meanwhile, MSU’s defense frustrated the Bruins, holding them to 1-for-12 from the field in the opening quarter while building a 21-6 advantage through 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, Belmont was able to stay in the game with an abundance of free throw opportunities, mounting the period’s first six points from the charity stripe to trim their deficit to seven. But Kaemyn Bekemeier’s 3-pointer near the five-minute mark got things going for MSU to push the home squad’s lead back to 24-14. The Bruins would tack on three more free throws and a pair of 3-pointers before the half to draw within 35-29 at the midway point.
Buckets from Masogayo and Daniels early in the third quarter extended MSU’s lead to 41-31 less than two minutes in. But, Belmont was able to mount its biggest push of the night coming out of a video review moments later. The Bruins made 7-of-9 free throws over the next three minutes to make it a 41-38 game midway through the stanza before the season-best crowd of 3,503 at Great Southern Bank Arena came to life.
The Lady Bears parlayed that energy into a 16-5 surge over the next five minutes with Stokes and Masogayo combining for 12 points in that stretch that pushed the home side ahead 57-43 heading into the final period.
From there, Taylor and Paige Rocca made sure Belmont’s comeback efforts were done for the night. Rocca’s triple 12 seconds into the final period set the table before Taylor’s layup pushed the Lady Bears ahead by 19 for their biggest lead to that point. Five minutes later, Rocca started a decisive 11-2 run for MSU with her layup midway through the quarter to ignite the surge which ultimately gave Missouri State its larges lead of the night, 73-50, with less than three minutes to play.
For the game, Missouri State was 26-of-55 (.473) from the field, 5-of-11 (.455) from 3-point range and 16-of-21 (.762) at the foul line with a decisive 42-26 rebounding advantage.
Belmont shot a season-low 23.9 percent from the field on 11-of-46 field goals and just 3-of-20 (.150) from long range. The Bruins did manage 29 free throws on 36 attempts (.806) with 11 steals and 10 fast-break points.
The Lady Bears will resume the home stand Sunday at 2 p.m. when they entertain Murray State (14-6, 7-4 MVC) at Great Southern Bank Arena on their annual Play4Kay Pink Out game.
