MOLINE, Ill. – Missouri State women’s basketball (22-8) defeated Murray State 71-70 here Friday night to advance to the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Indya Green had a sensational night, pouring in 22 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in the victory. Her 17 boards tied for sixth on the Valley Tournament rebound leader list for a single game. She scored 14 of her points and pulled down eight rebounds in the second half, with eight points coming in the crucial fourth quarter.
Lacy Stokes drove to the basket and was fouled with one second left in the game with the Lady Bears trailing by one, and she strolled to the line and knocked down both to ultimately send Missouri State to tomorrow’s semifinals.
After extending the lead to 10 points early in the fourth quarter, Murray State (20-11) put together a 10-2 run to cut the Lady Bear lead to two points. Less than two minutes later, another Racers triple tied the game at 57-57 with 4:52 remaining. Over the final 2:20, the game saw five lead changes and three ties.
A Missouri State foul with 0:05 left sent the Racers to the free throw line, where Bria Sanders-Woods connected on 1-of-2 to give Murray State a one-point lead. That’s when the Lady Bears drew up their play in the timeout and secured the victory at the free throw line and with one final defensive stop.
The third quarter proved to be huge for the Lady Bears. After trailing by four at the half, Missouri State outscored the Racers 21-10 in the period to take a seven-point lead into the fourth. MSU started the third with a 6-2 surge to tie the game after just two-and-a-half minutes. From there, the Lady Bears took the lead on a Kennedy Taylor jumper at 5:10, and with the MSU lead hovering between one and three points, Missouri State scored the final five points in the quarter to create a bit of separation.
Both squads struggled to get going offensively early on, but Missouri State found some momentum to end the quarter. Freshman Kaemyn Bekemeier hit a free throw to spark a small 5-0 run that Kyrah Daniels and Stokes completed to give the Lady Bears a four-point lead after one quarter in Moline.
The first half of the second period saw a couple of lead changes and ties, but a 10-2 Murray State run in the quarter gave the No. 6 seed its biggest lead of the night at eight points with 2:04 left in the half. Bekemeier went on to knock down a jumper at the buzzer to cut the Missouri State deficit to four points, 33-29, at the half.
The Lady Bears improved to 7-1 in games decided by five points or less and 4-0 in one-point games this season.
Green led the way with her double-double performance and was joined in double figures by Stokes with 17 points and a team-high four assists and four steals. As a unit, the Lady Bears forced 18 Murray State turnovers and led in second-chance points, 15-7.
Missouri State will play No. 2 Belmont in the semifinals tomorrow here in Moline. Tipoff against the Bruins is set for 4:00 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.
