{"id":213986,"date":"2026-03-21T05:01:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213986\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:01:36","slug":"no-1-seed-texas-overpowers-missouri-state-87-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/213986\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 1 seed Texas overpowers Missouri State 87-45"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photo slideshow: Texas forward Madison Booker (35) attempts to steal the ball from Missouri State guard JaNyla Bush (1) during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State forward Lainie Douglas (2) attempts to steal the ball from Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) drives to the basket against Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State forward Maiesha Washington (15) drives to the basket against Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas forward Madison Booker (35) steals the ball from Missouri State during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Maycee James (13) fights Rori Harmon for the ball during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State forward Lainie Douglas (2) drives to the basket against Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kendal Brueggen (3) during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Maycee James (13) fights off defender Rori Harmon during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas forward Justice Carlton (11) defends Missouri State forward Faith Lee (11) during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas guard Sarah Graves with her team after moving Texas to the round of 32 on a bracket after a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win against Missouri State in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas guard Sarah Graves moves Texas to the round of 32 on a bracket after a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win against Missouri State in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas guard Sarah Graves moves Texas to the round of 32 on a bracket after a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win against Missouri State in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas guard Sarah Graves with Texas\u2019 bracket name after a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win against Missouri State in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) speaks with Texas head coach Vic Schaefer after a loss in the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kendal Brueggen (3) cries coming off the court during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) attempts to steal the ball from Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) with her team ahead of the game against Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Maycee James (13) cries on the bench during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Texas center Kyla Oldacre defends Missouri State forward Maiesha Washington (15) during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)\"\"Missouri State guard Maycee James (13) fights off defender Rori Harmon during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 As members of the Oregon women\u2019s basketball team jogged off the court following an opening-round NCAA Tournament win over Virginia Tech on Friday at the Moody Center, they passed a glaringly large Texas team beginning to warm up for the second game of the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The host Longhorns certainly looked the part of a No. 1 seed and national title contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamn,\u201d a voice from the group of Ducks said. \u201cI feel sorry for Missouri State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other than the throngs of burnt orange-clad fans roaring at the nearly-packed 10,000-seat venue, it appeared to be a sentiment shared by many.<\/p>\n

The SEC Tournament champion and third-ranked Longhorns were simply too big, too skilled and too deep for No. 16 seed Missouri State, cruising 87-45 past the Lady Bears.<\/p>\n

The Conference USA Tournament champions were troubled by Texas\u2019 length and speed, held to a chilly 28.6% shooting (16-for-56), dominated in the paint (50-12) and outrebounded (49-27) by a sizable margin.<\/p>\n

When it wasn\u2019t 6-foot-6 center Kyla Oldacre (15 points) doing damage inside, it was crafty 6-foot guard Jordan Lee (19 points) slashing and hitting jumpers, and that was a small part of the Longhorns\u2019 arsenal.<\/p>\n

Texas All-American junior forward Madison Booker (14 points, 12 rebounds) \u2014 one of seven players in the Longhorns rotation 6-1 or taller \u2014 hit a 3-pointer moments after an inbounds steal to make it a 26-4 contest at the 8:18 mark of the second quarter, a sequence that sent the partisan crowd into a loud pop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t simulate a game like this, no matter how hard you try,\u201d MSU head coach Beth Cunningham said.\u00a0\u201cWith their physicality and athleticism, it took a little bit longer to settle in than I would have liked, but I am really proud of how we came out of halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came in with much more composure and executed better. (The slow start) is what you worry about going into a game like this, playing in this environment. With them being as talented of a team as they are, they just don\u2019t make anything easy for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Missouri State guard Maycee James (13) fights off defender Rori Harmon during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Texas in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)<\/p>\n

Missouri State (23-13) connected on just two field goals in the game\u2019s first 13 minutes \u2014 both Kaemeyn Bekemeier 3-pointers \u2014 and Texas (32-3) proceeded to add onto its sizable lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re great defenders, are No. 1 seed for a reason; they\u00a0have a great shot to win this thing and go deep into the tournament,\u201d Bekemeier said. \u201cIt\u2019s a new level of basketball, and you\u2019re not going to get nearly as much room (to shoot).\u201d<\/p>\n

Bekemeier, the Conference USA Tournament MVP and the league\u2019s leading scorer, had a team-high 14 points. In Wednesday\u2019s 85-75 First Four win over Stephen F. Austin, the former Republic star had 22 points and 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Missouri State, which averaged just over 17 turnovers heading into the Friday contest, saw its 19 turnovers against the Longhorns get turned into 28 points.<\/p>\n

Because of the size differential, Texas \u2014 a 44.5-point betting favorite \u2014 didn\u2019t need to lean on its cache of 3-pointers against the Lady Bears. The Longhorns shot nine times from beyond the arc, connecting on two.<\/p>\n

\"\"Texas guard Sarah Graves with Texas\u2019 bracket name after a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win against Missouri State in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)<\/p>\n

Missouri State\u2019s two young forwards, Lainie Douglas and Maiesha Washington, each had 11 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really physical, and I knew that going into it. I worked on jump shot, just to have it in the bag for this game,\u201d Douglas said of the Longhorns\u2019 front line. \u201cThey were super physical and were hard to work around it. It\u2019s still a learning process, and I\u2019m excited to keep learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

After trailing 44-12 at halftime, Missouri State was able to get into somewhat of an offensive rhythm in a 22-point third quarter. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment was amazing, and we might have been a little intimidated at the beginning,\u201d Bekemeier said of the team\u2019s slow offensive start before making progress after halftime. \u201cI think we were getting shots, just some things weren\u2019t falling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) speaks with Texas head coach Vic Schaefer after a loss in the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)<\/p>\n

Texas coach Vic Schaefer said he was impressed by how Missouri State kept fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey scored 33 (second-half) points on us after only having 12 in the first half, and I think that speaks a lot about an individual, a team, a coach, and staff,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI felt they were really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashton Judd, a former West Plains High School star whose father, Eric Judd, was a guard and team captain at Missouri State in the late 1990s, had four points and five rebounds. <\/p>\n

MSU\u2019s 42-point loss to Texas marked the second-worst defeat in the Lady Bears\u2019 38-game NCAA Tournament history (20-18 overall tournament record). It ranks behind a 78-34 loss to top-seeded Colorado in 1995.<\/p>\n

Lady Bears could be even better next year if young group stays together<\/p>\n

\"\"Missouri State guard Kaemyn Bekemeier (24) with her team ahead of the game against Texas during a women\u2019s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game in Austin, Texas, on Friday, March 20, 2026. (Photo by Kennedy Weatherby)<\/p>\n

Missouri State featured one of the youngest rotations in Conference USA this past season. The group grew before its fanbase\u2019s eyes in a topsy-turvy year\u00a0that ended with a four-way tie for third, a No. 6 tournament seed, and an eventual CUSA Tournament title.<\/p>\n

Bekemeier and Douglas would earn first and second-team All-CUSA distinction to lead a roster that regularly played four freshmen, including forward Maiesha Washington and guards Kendal Brueggen, JaNyla Bush and Audrey Hopkins.<\/p>\n

MSU loses an experienced backcourt of point guard Maycee James and off-guards Faith Lee and Cady Pauley to graduation, but returns the bulk of its scoring, most of its best shooters, and two primary posts.<\/p>\n

The Lady Bears appear to currently have the pieces\u00a0to return to the NCAA Tournament if they stay in Springfield in an unpredictable transfer portal and NIL era.<\/p>\n

Bekemeier, the Springfield-area talent who realized a childhood dream by helping MSU win a Missouri Valley regular-season title in 2025 and\u00a0a CUSA Tournament title in 2026, sees the potential for greatness next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a young group and having all four of those freshmen step in key moments the entire season and be put into this big position and big moments \u2014 that\u2019s going to help them thrive down the road,\u201d Bekemeier said. \u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot of growing\u00a0we can do, and there was\u00a0a whole lot of growing we did this season that will definitely help us as a team next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Cunningham\u2019s three previous seasons at MSU, she lost some proven underclassmen in the portal to bigger schools, but wasn\u2019t completely gutted by the departures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last offseason, Cunningham\u2019s team was hit hard by graduation with the loss of four significant starters.\u00a0The other starter, all-MVC guard Kyrah Daniels, transferred to Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 offseason, forwards Kennedy Taylor (Kansas State), Jade Mosogayo (Colorado) and Indya Green (Georgia Southern before Southern Illinois) opted to play elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Cunningham said she hopes graduation is\u00a0the only reason her players are departing this offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really thrilled with our freshman class and how they impacted us,\u201d Cunningham said.\u00a0\u201cLainie is just a sophomore for us, and Kaemyn is a junior. And then with the addition of another impactful freshman class\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too early to think that far ahead now, but I\u2019m excited about the group we\u2019ve assembled. Hopefully, we can keep this group together, a group that will continue to grow and build. With the way the landscape is, whether it\u2019s graduation or otherwise, you feel like you\u2019re reconstructing your team every season. My goal is that the reconstruction is from a graduation standpoint versus a portal standpoint, but it\u2019s hard to know what that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSports Reporter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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":"Photo slideshow: Texas forward Madison Booker (35) attempts to steal the ball from Missouri State guard JaNyla Bush…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,81107,35043,83784,46987,5278,81110,81111,81112,537,82175],"class_list":["post-213986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-featured1","tag-jordan-lee","tag-kaemeyn-bekemeier","tag-kyla-oldacre","tag-madison-booker","tag-missouri-state","tag-missouri-state-lady-bears","tag-ncaa-womens-tournament","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-topsports1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213986","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=213986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}