Missouri State women’s basketball star Lacy Stokes has cemented herself among the greats to wear a Lady Bears uniform and among the best who grew up and spent their entire careers southwest Missouri.
Lady Bears coach Beth Cunningham, who was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year on Wednesday morning, said the point guard has meant everything to a team that finished as co-champions of the league as it competes for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament this week.
Stokes wasn’t named the MVC Player of the Year, which went to Drake’s Katie Dinnebier for the second straight year, but she earned first-team all-conference honors and became the eighth Lady Bear to earn the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award.
Stokes’ numbers didn’t quite stick out on paper as much as someone like a deserving Dinnebier, but if Cunningham had it her way, her point guard would have received the conference’s top honor.
“I wouldn’t trade Lacy for anybody,” Cunningham said Monday. “That kid has meant so much to our program, so much to our team. Everybody values different things in terms of how they vote, but we place a really, really high value on winning. That’s probably as big as any and just how she led our team to a regular season conference championship.”
It’s unclear where Stokes finished in the voting. Murray State’s Katelyn Young also had a player-of-the-year-worthy season, and Dinnebier is a finalist for the national Mid-Major Player of the Year award.
Dinnebier finished as the league’s leading scorer at 22.7 points per game, while Stokes finished 17th with 13.6. Dinnebier also led the MVC in assists, where Stokes finished seventh. Stokes led the league in steals, where Dinnebier finished second.
On the court, however, Stokes and the Lady Bears beat Dinnebier and the Bulldogs twice.
“The thing I appreciate about (Stokes) so much is she plays with the same sense of urgency, every single possession she’s out there on the court,” Cunningham said. “I rarely take her out, she rarely takes a break and she’s often tasked with the toughest assignment of guarding the other team’s best player. At the same time, we heavily rely on her to have the ball in her hands and orchestrate everything that we do on offense.
“I don’t think there’s been anyone else in this league that has had as much value literally on both ends of the floor.”
Stokes’ career accolades now include first- and second-team all-MVC honors, MVC Newcomer and Defensive Player of the Year awards and two all-defensive nods. At Missouri Southern, she was the MIAA Freshman and Player of the Year and a two-time Division II All-American honorable mention.
Stokes previously was a four-year starter in basketball and volleyball at Mount Vernon High School, where she earned all-state recognition in both sports.
She’ll have the opportunity to add an NCAA Tournament to her long list of achievements this week. The Lady Bears tip off in the MVC Tournament quarterfinals in Evansville, Indiana, at 6 p.m. Friday.
“I think the kid has had a player of the year type of performance,” Cunningham said. “There’s no question in my mind about that.”
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State women’s basketball star Lacy Stokes adds more awards
