Missouri State is headed to Austin, Texas.
The Conference USA Tournament champion and 16th-seeded Lady Bears (22-11) will face 16th-seeded and Southland Conference champion Stephen F. Austin (25-9) in a Wednesday play-in game of the NCAA Tournament at the University of Texas, an 8 p.m. matchup announced on ESPN on Sunday evening during its annual Selection Show.
The play-in winner will advance to face No. 1 seed and host Texas (31-3) on Friday.
Missouri State, entering its 18th NCAA Tournament appearance, hosted a Selection Show party at Great Southern Bank Arena as the bracket was announced, a mere hour after the team returned from Huntsville, Alabama, the CUSA Tournament host.
Fourth-year head coach Beth Cunningham said she was surprised by the Lady Bears’ seeding.
“I’ll have to do a little more digging about why, but I thought we’d be a little bit higher than that,” Cunningham said. “But that’s not up for me to decide, and all we can control is the things we can, which we did this weekend.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity to go to a NCAA Tournament, now the main focus is to win in the postseason.”
Teammates Lainie Douglas, left, Kaemyn Bekemeier and Angel Scott react to the announcement of the MSU women’s basketball placement in the NCAA Tournament. (Photo by Jym Wilson)
In MSU’s first year as a Conference USA member after decades of women’s basketball success in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Lady Bears finished in a four-way tie for third in the regular-season standings (11-7 CUSA play) before being assigned a sixth seed in tournament play.
MSU proceeded to down No. 3 Middle Tennessee in the quarterfinals, No. 2 FIU in the semifinals and top-seeded Louisiana Tech in the championship game, snapping the Lady Techsters’ 19-game winning streak.
Missouri State junior guard and Republic graduate Kaemyn Bekemeier (first-team all-CUSA) earned CUSA Tournament MVP honors after averaging 17.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in Huntsville, Alabama. Sophomore forward Lainie Douglas (second-team all-CUSA) also earned tournament honors after totaling 15 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks in the title game.
Bekemeier and Douglas were the only two returners from last year’s MVC co-champion team who played substantial roles, each coming off the bench.
Now they’re the leaders of the latest Lady Bears team to reach March Madness, though they’ll have a short turnaround from Saturday night’s championship win to Wednesday’s play-in game.
“It’s icing on the cake. We get to go out and play another game and show all the hard work that came into (making it),” Douglas said of the play-in game.
The MSU Lady Bears basketball team and fans attend a watch party in Great Southern Bank Arena to hear the NCAA Tournament selections on Sunday, March, 15, 2026. (Photo by Jym Wilson)
Missouri State had a NET ranking of 115 on Sunday. In the NCAA’s four-tier quad system used to dictate NET rankings, Missouri State didn’t face a Quad 1 team this season, but went 0-2 against Quad 2, 2-2 against Quad 3, and 20-8 against Quad 4.
Bekemeier said a nonconference slate that included Power 4 members Florida State, Kansas, Arkansas and mid-major power Gonzaga (a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament) — all Lady Bears losses — will be beneficial in an NCAA Tournament setting.
“Those games are definitely going to prepare us for this tournament style,” Bekemeier said. “And playing a game, having one day off, then playing again. We just played three days in a row. Our bodies need to recover a little bit, but we’ll be ready to go.”
When Missouri State faces Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday, it will be somewhat of a home game for the Lumberjacks, whose Nacogdoches, Texas campus is 230 miles from Austin.
SFA, which has a NET ranking of 161, is an up-tempo team that averages 75 points a game, led by first-team all-Southland guard Key Roseby (13.4 ppg). The Lumberjacks have two common opponents with the Lady Bears (Louisiana Tech and Arkansas), both early-season road losses. SFA fell to Louisiana Tech 93-63 and Arkansas 83-72.
This is the Lumberjacks’ 19th NCAA Tournament appearance and fourth berth since 2021.
MSU-Texas connections
Missouri State senior reserve guard Angel Scott played her first two seasons at SFA, where she started 34 games and averaged 6.7 points under a previous coaching staff.
If the Lady Bears can get past SFA on Wednesday, they’ll face a Texas team that features a former southwest Missouri sensation in Ashton Judd.
The former West Plains star scored more than 1,000 points in three seasons at Mizzou before transferring to the national power Longhorns last offseason. She injured her knee and missed the first 12 games of the season and averages five points and 2.8 rebounds a game.
Judd is the daughter of Eric Judd, a former Missouri State men’s basketball player who played for the Bears’ 1999 Sweet 16 team.
Ryan Collingwood covers college and high school sports in the Springfield metropolitan area for the Daily Citizen. Have a story idea or gripe? Send an email to rcollingwood@sgfcitizen.org, call or 417-837-3660, or follow Ryan on social media at X.com/rwcollingwood. More by Ryan Collingwood