ST. THOMAS, U.S. VI – Missouri State women’s basketball fell to 4-2 on the season with a 97-66 loss to Florida State (7-1) here on Friday evening in game two of the Paradise Jam.
It was a tough outing for the Lady Bears as they fell behind early and never led in the game. Six of Florida State’s first seven field goals came from behind the arc to propel the Seminoles to an 18-11 advantage. Kaemyn Bekemeier answered with MSU’s first triple of the night to cut the Lady Bear deficit back to four points, but an FSU jumper with 0:30 left gave the Seminoles a 20-14 advantage after one.
In a two-possession game to begin the second quarter, the shots kept falling for the Seminoles as they went on a 13-2 run to take a 33-16 lead over the Lady Bears at the 5:56 mark. MSU began to settle in offensively and allowed just five FSU points over the remainder of the quarter. Lainie Douglas and Lacy Stokes connected on back-to-back buckets to end the FSU run and start chipping away at the lead. Trailing by 15 points later in the quarter, Bekemeier poured in four points and Paige Rocca drained a triple to cut the Lady Bear deficit to just nine points. Following a Florida State bucket, Kiley Bess got a layup to go before Douglas closed the half with a wide-open look in the paint on the final possession to make it a 38-31 game at the intermission.
Just as Missouri State was able to get some momentum going into the half, Florida State snatched it right back to begin the third quarter. The Seminoles went on a 9-0 run to open the second half, with seven of those coming courtesy of Ta’Niya Latson (21 pts, 7-for-13 FG) to increase their lead back out to 16 points. Rocca was eventually able to knock down three free throws at the line after being fouled on a three-point attempt and then about 10 seconds later was able to connect on her second triple of the evening to pull the Lady Bears back within 12 points. However, that’s as close as the Lady Bears would ever get in the second half as FSU continued to knock down shots.
Following three points from Sarah Linthacum and a Bekemeier trey at 3:08, the FSU lead continued to hover between 15 and 17 points for the remainder of the period as Missouri State trailed 68-51 to start the fourth quarter. The final period saw much of the same as the Lady Bears weren’t able to string points together or get the stops that they needed to. Florida State ended the game on a 15-1 run, six of those coming at the charity stripe, to hand MSU its first loss at the Paradise Jam tournament.
Linthacum paced MSU with 11 points, while Bekemeier and Rocca joined her in double figures with 10 points each. Bess was the team’s rebound leader with eight boards to pair with nine points and four assists.
As a team, Missouri State outrebounded the Seminoles 41-39, including 14-9 on the offensive glass. MSU shot 40 percent (25-63), 26 percent from beyond the arc (5-19) and 58 percent from the line (11-19), while FSU was 50 percent (34-68) from the field, 47 percent (14-30) from three and 83 percent (15-18) from the charity stripe.
Missouri State will close out the Paradise Jam tomorrow (Nov. 30) with a matchup against Texas Tech. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m. CT
