By the looks of how hard Missouri State women’s basketball played to open the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, you would have never guessed the Lady Bears were playing in a secondary tournament.
The Lady Bears played like a team motivated to make a deep March Madness run in their 107-76 WBIT first-round win over Oral Roberts at Great Southern Bank Arena on Thursday night.
The win advanced the three-seed Lady Bears to the second round, where they will play two-seed Minnesota on Sunday. The Lady Bears will host the Golden Gophers at 2 p.m., despite being the lower seed.
Missouri State women’s basketball scored 53 points in first half
The Lady Bears scored 15 of the game’s first 17 points, which saw Paige Rocca hit back-to-back 3’s to cap off the run. They were in full control when hitting six 3’s in the opening quarter with Kaemyn Bekemeier also hitting a pair.
Their feet never came off the gas, extending their lead to as many as 27 with a minute left in the half. MSU made eight 3’s, with Lacy Stokes and Bekemeier each scoring 12 points. Eight different Lady Bears scored in the game’s first 20 minutes as the team shot 46.5% from the field and held the Golden Eagles to 33.3%.
Missouri State women’s basketball cruises to win
Not much changed in the second half. Six different Lady Bears finished the game with 10 or more points.
Stokes led the way with 20 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Sarah Linthacum also had a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards. Bekemeier scored 17 points with four 3’s. Rocca made five 3’s.
The game marked the first time the Lady Bears scored 100 or more points in the team’s three seasons under Beth Cunningham. It was the team’s first since scoring 100 against Lincoln in Dec. 2020. It’s also the first time the Lady Bears have scored 100 or more against a Division I opponent since scoring 108 against Valparaiso in Jan. 2019, the program’s final season under Kellie Harper.
WBIT second round game vs Minnesota up next
Not since the opening game of the Amaka Agugua-Hamilton era have the Lady Bears faced Minnesota. The Lady Bears beat then-No. 23 Minnesota to tip off a season that saw them win a Missouri Valley Conference championship and be nationally ranked for much of the season.
A lot has changed since then. Minnesota is now coached by Dawn Plitzuweit, who previously led South Dakota and West Virginia. Her Gophers finished the season 20-11 and with an 8-10 record in Big Ten play.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State women’s basketball destroys Oral Roberts in WBIT
