Springfield Standard

Missouri State University's women's basketball team, the Lady Bears, will begin their 2025-26 season on Monday night with a home game against the Saint Louis Billikens at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield. The matchup is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Tickets for the event are available, including a special offer of four tickets for $36. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Mike McClure and Carly Stubblefield providing commentary. Radio coverage will be available on KWTO 93.3 FM with Tom Ladd and Lynne Miller, and fans can also follow live statistics online.

The Lady Bears' regular season includes 15 home games at Great Southern Bank Arena. Missouri State leads the all-time series against Saint Louis, holding a 15-4 advantage overall and an 8-1 record at home. This marks the fourth consecutive year that these teams have met, with Missouri State winning two of the last three matchups. Beth Cunningham's first win as head coach came against Saint Louis on November 15, 2022.

Last season, Missouri State finished with a 26-9 record and shared the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title after going 16-4 in league play during its final year in that conference. The team reached its tenth straight postseason appearance and advanced to the second round of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament before being eliminated by Minnesota.

This year's roster features significant changes as all five starters from last season have departed. Seven players return from last year’s squad, including Kaemyn Bekemeier and Lainie Douglas. The team has added seven new members—four transfers and three freshmen.

In their first season competing in Conference USA, Missouri State was predicted to finish fourth in the preseason poll behind Louisiana Tech, Liberty, and Middle Tennessee. Faith Lee, a senior transfer from Little Rock who averaged 14.2 points per game last season and was named to the CUSA Preseason All-Conference Team, joins Missouri State this year.

Missouri State has maintained strong performance at home since the start of the 2017-18 season with a record of 97 wins and just 14 losses at Great Southern Bank Arena. Under Beth Cunningham’s leadership since her arrival as head coach, they have achieved a home record of 40-6.

The Lady Bears are one of only thirteen Division I programs to secure eight consecutive seasons with twenty or more wins—a streak that began in 2017-18—and are unique among those programs for doing so under three different head coaches: Kellie Harper, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, and Beth Cunningham.

During Cunningham’s tenure so far, Missouri State is undefeated when holding opponents under sixty points (37-0), nearly perfect when limiting them to sixty-five or fewer (49-1), and has won forty-seven out of fifty-two games when scoring seventy or more points themselves.

In last year's meeting between these teams, Missouri State defeated Saint Louis by twenty-three points (91-68). Five Lady Bears scored in double figures; Kyrah Daniels led with twenty-six points while Lacy Stokes added twenty-one. The team forced twenty-one turnovers from SLU and made eleven three-pointers—their second-highest total for threes that season.

Missouri State University emphasizes accessibility for attendees needing accommodations; requests can be directed to their Deputy Compliance Officer by phone or email.