SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State women’s basketball (18-5, 10-2 MVC) remained undefeated at home with an 86-57 victory over Evansville (5-18, 1-11 MVC) here on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon.
After leading by 13 points at the half, Missouri State took full control in the second half as the Lady Bears steadily increased their advantage. A Paige Rocca triple at the 8:06 mark of the third pushed the lead to 14 and sparked an 11-0 surge to eventually put the Lady Bear lead at 22 points. A short time later, Rocca was once again the spark plug, this time for a 9-2 run that extended the lead to 27 points.
With a firm lead of 25 points heading into the fourth quarter, the Lady Bears maintained their focus and posted their largest scoring quarter of the night with 25 points. MoState shot .462 (6-13) from the field in the fourth and took advantage of its trips to the free throw line, going 11-for-13 (.846) down the stretch. With the game in hand, Missouri State’s bench accounted for 21 of its 25 fourth quarter points as the Lady Bears cruised to a 29-point win to improve to 11-0 at home this season.
The one lead change and three ties in the ballgame all occurred in the first five minutes of the game as the squads swapped baskets. That’s when freshman Lainie Douglas connected on a layup to give the Lady Bears the lead and they never looked back. Douglas’s first bucket of the game was the start of a 12-0 run for the Lady Bears that Kaemyn Bekemeier capped with a triple.
After a Douglas layup to start the second gave the home team a 14-point lead, Evansville chipped away little by little with a 9-2 run to pull back within seven points of the lead. A Cady Pauley fastbreak layup put an end to the Purple Aces best run of the night as MoState finished the first half by outscoring Evansville, 13-7.
Douglas and Bekemeier led the way for Missouri State with 17 points each, while the former grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Rocca and Kiley Bess followed with 12 points apiece to put four Lady Bears in double figures on the afternoon.
As a team, the Lady Bears scored 31 points off 22 Evansville turnovers and dominated in bench points, 45-10. MoState had 22 assists on 31 made baskets and was plus-three on the boards (38-35). For the game, Missouri State shot .470 (31-66) from the field, .389 (7-18) from three and .773 (17-22) from the line.
The Lady Bears will be back in action on Thursday, February 13 with a road game at Southern Illinois. Tipoff against the Salukis is set for 6:00 p.m.
