Murray State (8-4, 2-1 MVC) here Saturday afternoon at Great Southern Bank Arena.
Lacy Stokes and Kaemyn Bekemeier led the way for the Lady Bears with career days offensively. Stokes poured in 28 points (9-13 FG, 4-4 3FG, 6-8 FT), marking her best scoring output while wearing the maroon and white. She also added four rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile, Bekemeier was a spark plug as she dropped a career-high 20 points (9-15 FG, 2-4 FT) coming off the bench. The sophomore also contributed seven rebounds in the victory.
With the lead exchanging hands to start this one, Bekemeier came in off the bench and immediately lit a spark for the Lady Bears. She came in and scored six consecutive points to extend the Lady Bear lead to seven points. After a couple of Racers triples to cut it back to one, Bekemeier made her fourth consecutive basket and Stokes finished off the quarter with a jumper to give MSU an important five-point advantage after one.
Murray State held the slight upper hand in the second period, outscoring Missouri State 22-21 while shooting 56 percent (9-16) from the field. Neither team put together a sustained run in the quarter as MoState maintained the lead for the duration of the first half, but the Racers cut their deficit to two points with 0:42 on the clock. The Lady Bears were able to find the bottom of the basket on the other end, courtesy of a Cady Pauley jumper, to push the lead back to four points. On Murray State’s final possession of the half, Paige Rocca sacrificed herself and took the charge to force a Racers turnover and keep the Lady Bear lead at 39-35 heading into the break.
Missouri State improved to 10-1 on the season when leading at the half. The Lady Bears shot 47 percent (14-30) from the field and 100 percent (8-8) from the stripe in the first 20 minutes, while Bekemeier led MoState with 14 first-half points.
Out of the intermission, Missouri State stretched its lead to eight points after back-to-back buckets from Stokes and Kiley Bess. That’s when Murray State put together its best run of the day, a 9-0 surge to reclaim the lead, 44-43, with 6:31 on the clock. After trading two layups and with the lead still at one in favor of the visitors, Missouri State retaliated with a 9-0 run of its own, bookended by a Lainie Douglas jumper and Stokes triple. MoState carried that momentum into the final quarter, leading 58-51.
Stokes took the game over in the fourth quarter, pouring in the first seven points of the fourth quarter to give Missouri State its largest lead of the game at 14 points. From there, Murray State tried to make a final push, cutting the Lady Bear lead to seven, but that’s as close as the Racers would get. With Murray State forced to foul down the stretch, Stokes went 6-for-8 from the line and secured MoState’s 10th win of the season and kept the Lady Bears unbeaten at home. Both squads posted their highest scoring numbers of the day in the fourth quarter with MoState shooting a game-high 69 percent (9-13) in the final period.
In addition to the big days from Bekemeier and Stokes, Sarah Linthacum posted 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Bess and Kyrah Daniels paced the Lady Bears with eight rebounds each.
As a team, Missouri State got another important performance from its bench as they outscored Murray State 30-15 and improved to 8-0 this season when leading in bench scoring. The Lady Bears shot 51 percent (32-63) from the floor, 40 percent (6-15) and 60 percent (15-25) from the line on the afternoon.
Missouri State will be back in action next week as they host Southern Illinois on Sunday, January 12. Tipoff against the Salukis is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.
