![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/beth.png\")
Beth Cunningham speaks to reporters on Tuesday at the University of Texas ahead of an NCAA Tournament game against Stephen F. Austin. (Photo by NCAA)<\/p>\nAUSTIN, Texas \u2014 It had been 29 years since Missouri State coach Beth Cunningham\u2019s previous visit to the University of Texas, and it was in a much different capacity.<\/p>\n
The then-Notre Dame senior helped spearhead the No. 6 seed Irish\u2019s upset of third-seeded Texas 86-83 in the Sweet 16 of the 1997 NCAA Tournament, a St. Patrick\u2019s Day triumph and one of the more brilliant performances of Cunningham\u2019s sterling playing career.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Cunningham was back in Austin as an underdog yet again.<\/p>\n
But before her No. 16 seed and Conference USA Tournament champion Lady Bears (22-12) can get a shot at the No. 1 seed and host Longhorns (31-3) on Friday a Moody Arena in the latest edition of March Madness, they will have to get past a much smaller school within the University of Texas System: No. 16 seed Stephen F. Austin (25-9), whose Nacogdoches-based campus is a 230-mile drive from the Texas capital.<\/p>\n
MSU is a 2.5-point betting favorite against the Lumberjacks, a Southland Conference power in their fourth NCAA Tournament since 2021.<\/p>\n
Tipoff for the First Four play-in game is at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and will be broadcast on ESPN2.<\/p>\n
Beth Cunningham speaks to reporters on Tuesday at the University of Texas ahead of an NCAA Tournament game against Stephen F. Austin. (Photo by NCAA)<\/p>\n
The five-team University of Texas host pod also includes No. 8 seed Oregon and No. 9 seed Virginia Tech, who face off Friday at 12:30 p.m., part of an assembly of teams with several Missouri State connections.<\/p>\n
Stephen F. Austin associate head coach Steve Yang is a 2006 Missouri State grad and a former Lady Bears director of basketball operations in the early 2010s under Nyla Milleson. He was also an assistant at Evangel.<\/p>\n
Missouri State senior reserve guard Angel Scott (1.3 points per game) played her first two seasons at Stephen F. Austin under current head coach Leonard Bishop (then an assistant) and started 34 games. She helped the Lumberjacks reach the 2022 NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
Virginia Tech assistant coach Darren Guensch spent the three previous seasons as Missouri State\u2019s associate head coach alongside Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Texas senior guard and former West Plains and Missouri star Ashton Judd is the daughter of Eric Judd, a member of the 1999 Missouri State team that reached the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n
Neither Missouri State (a No. 6 seed in the CUSA Tournament) nor SFA (No. 3 seed in Southland Tournament) were regular-season champions with parity in their respective leagues. Each got hot when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
The Lady Bears (NET ranking of 115) and Lumberjacks (NET ranking of 161) each take momentum into a clash of contrasting styles.<\/p>\n
A long and physical MSU team that\u2019s been held back by turnovers (17.7 per game), faces a guard-heavy, up-tempo SFA team putting up 74 points a contest. They\u2019ve put up a gaudy 860 3-point attempts (25.2 per game), connecting on 283, led by Harmanie Dominguez (97 for 262).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Cunningham, Bekemeier and Douglas spoke to reporters at a Tuesday pre-practice press conference at the Moody Center to discuss Wednesday\u2019s matchup and their path to the tournament. SFA was represented by Bishop, Dominguez and Ashlyn Traylor-Walker.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the things the players and coaches said on Tuesday, roughly 40 hours after learning their tournament destination.<\/p>\n
MSU guard Kaemyn Bekemeier<\/p>\n
On what she sees out of Stephen F. Austin on film.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to approach them like we\u2019ve approached every Conference USA team. I think it will be a really good matchup, something we\u2019re similar to. They work back and forth between man and zone, so we\u2019ll get to run everything that we have. They like to run out in transition with lots of 3s and layups. I think it will be an awesome matchup. Something we\u2019re familiar with and seeing. We\u2019re excited to get out there and get shots up, even though it\u2019s practice today. Just soaking it up today and getting mentally ready to play tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
On getting a No. 16 seed after winning CUSA Tournament as a No. 6 seed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, it\u2019s just an honor to be here. I know the Lord has a plan, and whatever happens, happens. The sixth seed and three (Conference Tournament wins) was all for a reason, so I have no doubt that this is for a reason, too. But we\u2019ve talked, and we\u2019re excited to play a (play-in) game before (playing against a) really high seed, so it will be good to shoot in a real game in the same arena and have the game-day feel and be able to turn around and do it two days later.\u201d<\/p>\n
MSU forward Lainie Douglas<\/p>\n
On sustaining momentum in NCAA Tournament after beating No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 seeds in CUSA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like there was always a target on our back, so just playing our game. I know we have a great chance against any team we play. Just playing our game is the best we can do, and sticking to the scout, playing how we know: with toughness and grit.\u201d<\/p>\n
MSU coach Beth Cunningham<\/p>\n
On Stephen F. Austin after scouting the Lumberjacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalented team, very guard-oriented. They love to shoot the 3 and play with tempo. We\u2019ll see a little more zone than what we\u2019ve seen in our recent games, although we\u2019ve seen it throughout the year. (Head coach Leonard) Bishop does a great job with them, and we have one of their former players playing with us in Angel Scott. That is probably most of my familiarity with them before this point. They\u2019ve had a tremendous year, and we\u2019re excited for the opportunity. \u201c<\/p>\n
On getting a No. 16 seed and a play-in game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, not really focused on where they decided to place us. It was a little bit of a surprise. It wasn\u2019t really on my radar that we could be playing as early as Wednesday. But that\u2019s not our focus. To win the conference championship and put ourselves in a position to be there, that\u2019s our entire focus is to play like we would any game and prepare for another game on our schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the quick turnaround and after playing three consecutive days in CUSA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way it played out, we\u2019re kind of in a good game flow. You can look at it a couple of ways. Oftentimes, once you find out who you\u2019re playing and when you\u2019re playing, you have a whole week to balance getting back into practice, prepping. But we\u2019ve been in a good game flow. Sunday and Monday off both ended up being travel days, so we haven\u2019t been able to do anything on the court since the championship game. Most of the time, we\u2019ve had a day off, one prep with practice, and a shootaround on game day. We\u2019re in a good flow right and I think the kids will be more excited for a game than a practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
SFA guard Ashlyn Traylor-Walker<\/p>\n
On her assessment of Missouri State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a lot different to the teams we\u2019re used to in (the Southland Conference). They have a lot of post play, so that\u2019s something we have to pay attention to.\u201d<\/p>\n
SFA guard Harmanie Dominguez<\/p>\n
On potentially getting a home-like crowd against the out-of-state Lady Bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Texas, not too far from home, so more people can come and support. Our support system has been really good, and I\u2019ve talked to some boosters who said they\u2019d come. So that\u2019s what really brings home to us, so being in Texas is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
SFA coach Leonard Bishop<\/p>\n
On what stood out to Bishop after scouting Missouri State.<\/p>\n
\u2018Their length, athleticism. They\u2019re a lot bigger than the Southland Conference teams we play. Coach (Beth) Cunningham does a great job after timeout sets and things like that to get them easy points. They do get out in transition and are gritty on the defensive end. A lot of things we talked about in the short turnaround time we got for prep. But at the end of the day, we have to be the best version of ourselves. Missouri State presents its challenges, but we have to make sure we\u2019re playing our brand of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his former player, Angel Scott, now at MSU and his associate head coach Steve Yang a product of MSU.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngel was a really good player when she played for us when we had her and her sister here. We talk about family here, and we\u2019ve coached a lot of sisters here, and those were sisters we were able to win a championship with. Coach Yang graduated from Missouri State. He wanted to take the (scouting report) because it was a little personal for him. A lot of connections. And we\u2019re playing at the University of Texas, so we\u2019re talking about three programs with a tradition in women\u2019s basketball, so it\u2019s an honor to play against Missouri State and, if we get the opportunity, to play against the University of Texas (on Friday).\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t 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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 It had been 29 years since Missouri State coach Beth Cunningham\u2019s previous visit to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[82171,132,134,133,81106,82172,82173,81108,81109,81110,81111,3112,50693,82174,82175,4100],"class_list":["post-209586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-angel-scott","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-beth-cunningham","tag-darren-guensch","tag-harmanie-dominguez","tag-kaemyn-bekemeier","tag-lainie-douglas","tag-missouri-state","tag-missouri-state-lady-bears","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-stephen-f-austin","tag-steve-yang","tag-topsports1","tag-university-of-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRyan Collingwood\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n