Friday, December 20
Springfield, Mo. / Great Southern Bank Arena
Noon
Southern Miss
at
Missouri State
Lady Eagles Close Nonconference Play at Missouri State
12/19/2024 9:34:00 AM | Women's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss women's basketball travels to Springfield, Mo., for the first-ever meeting between the Lady Eagles and Lady Bears of Missouri State. The Lady Eagles are looking for their first win away from Reed Green Coliseum this season as they look to give Missouri State just its eighth loss at home in the last six seasons. Tipoff is set for noon at the Great Southern Bank Arena with broadcasts on the Southern Miss Sports Network and ESPN+.
Game 11 // Southern Miss (4-6) at Missouri State (7-3)
Friday, December 20, 2024 // Noon CT
TV: ESPN+ // Corey Riggs (PxP) and Carly Stubblefield (Color)
Radio: Southern Miss Sports Network (92.7 FM) // Jason Baker (PxP)
Great Southern Bank Arena (11,000) // Springfield, Mo.
Starting Five
1) Southern Miss is looking for its first win away from the friendly confines of Reed Green Coliseum this season. Southern Miss is 4-0 on its home floor and 0-3 in true road games in addition to the squad's 0-3 mark at neutral sites. The last Lady Eagle win away from Reed Green came against Texas State on Feb. 28, 2024. Southern Miss' last nonconference win on the road was on Nov. 18, 2023, at North Alabama.
2) Melyia Grayson (Hattiesburg, Miss.) is slowly but surely moving up the all-time scoring charts. She enters tomorrow's contest with 1,349 career points to her name. She is leading the Lady Eagles with 15.4 points per game. She moved into the top 10 all-time in field goals made against Mississippi Valley State and currently owns 570 field goals in her career, sitting ninth on the all-time charts.
3) Nyla Jean (Tampa, Fla.) scored a career-high 24 points at UAB (Dec. 1) and is averaging 12.2 points per game – the highest average of her four-year career. She made her fifth start of the season against Memphis after coming off the bench in the first five games.
4) Southern Miss and Missouri State meet for the first time in either program's history. The two teams have combined for nearly 1,900 all-time wins in a combined 106 seasons of basketball. The Lady Bears are in the second year of the Beth Cunningham era and advanced to the Missouri Valley Conference championship game last season.
5) Head coach Joye Lee-McNelis is back for her 21st season at the helm of Lady Eagle Basketball. She sports a 333-293 record at Southern Miss and 562-449 record overall. This will be her first game against Missouri State.
About the Lady Bears
Missouri State owns a 7-3 record so far in the season and is undefeated, 3-0, at Great Southern Bank Arena. Second-year head coach Beth Cunningham returns six letterwinners from her WBIT squad from last season.
The Lady Bears have five double-figure scorers on their roster this season with three being starters. Kyrah Daniels leads the group with 11.9 points per game but is closely followed by Lainie Douglas (11.8), Lacy Stokes (11.8), Sarah Linthacum (10.9) and Kaemyn Bekemeier (10.4).
Daniels, Stokes and Linthacum make up three of the five everyday starters for the Lady Bears. Missouri State has used the same starting five all 10 games so far with the Paige Rocca and Kiley Bess averaging 9.0 and 5.1 points per game.
Missouri State is one of the country's best three-point shooting teams as they are averaging 6.8 three-point baskets per game. Their makes per game is just 121st nationally but the Lady Bears are 11th nationally with a 39.5 three-point percentage.
The Missouri State Series
Friday's matchup is the first of the series and just Southern Miss' seventh trip to Missouri. The Lady Eagles are 1-5 on the road in the Show Me State with a 1-4 record against Saint Louis in Saint Louis and an 0-1 record against Southeastern Missouri State in Cape Girardeau.
After This
Southern Miss will enjoy the Christmas break before returning to practice to prepare for Georgia State and Sun Belt Conference play.
Tipoff for the Lady Eagles' Sun Belt Conference opener is set for 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) on Sunday, Dec. 29, at Georgia State's Convocation Center in Atlanta.
Celebrating 50 Seasons of Southern Miss Women's Basketball
The 2024-25 season of Southern Miss Lady Eagle Basketball marks a major milestone for the program and for The University of Southern Mississippi as the women's basketball program celebrates its 50th season of competition. Following the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Southern Miss added women's basketball and women's tennis as official athletic programs beginning in the 1975-76 season. Since then, the Lady Eagles have laid out five decades of excellence on and off the court. To celebrate this golden jubilee, Southern Miss women's basketball will host its 50th Season Celebration and Reunion on Saturday, January 18, against South Alabama at Reed Green Coliseum.
Follow The Lady Eagles
Follow the Lady Eagles on Twitter (@SouthernMissWBB), Instagram (@southernmisswbb) or on Facebook (/SouthernMissWBB) to stay up-to-date on Southern Miss women's basketball. Fans can visit Southern Miss.com or download the Southern Miss GameDay app to see full schedules, releases and more.
Game 11 // Southern Miss (4-6) at Missouri State (7-3)
Friday, December 20, 2024 // Noon CT
TV: ESPN+ // Corey Riggs (PxP) and Carly Stubblefield (Color)
Radio: Southern Miss Sports Network (92.7 FM) // Jason Baker (PxP)
Great Southern Bank Arena (11,000) // Springfield, Mo.
Starting Five
1) Southern Miss is looking for its first win away from the friendly confines of Reed Green Coliseum this season. Southern Miss is 4-0 on its home floor and 0-3 in true road games in addition to the squad's 0-3 mark at neutral sites. The last Lady Eagle win away from Reed Green came against Texas State on Feb. 28, 2024. Southern Miss' last nonconference win on the road was on Nov. 18, 2023, at North Alabama.
2) Melyia Grayson (Hattiesburg, Miss.) is slowly but surely moving up the all-time scoring charts. She enters tomorrow's contest with 1,349 career points to her name. She is leading the Lady Eagles with 15.4 points per game. She moved into the top 10 all-time in field goals made against Mississippi Valley State and currently owns 570 field goals in her career, sitting ninth on the all-time charts.
3) Nyla Jean (Tampa, Fla.) scored a career-high 24 points at UAB (Dec. 1) and is averaging 12.2 points per game – the highest average of her four-year career. She made her fifth start of the season against Memphis after coming off the bench in the first five games.
4) Southern Miss and Missouri State meet for the first time in either program's history. The two teams have combined for nearly 1,900 all-time wins in a combined 106 seasons of basketball. The Lady Bears are in the second year of the Beth Cunningham era and advanced to the Missouri Valley Conference championship game last season.
5) Head coach Joye Lee-McNelis is back for her 21st season at the helm of Lady Eagle Basketball. She sports a 333-293 record at Southern Miss and 562-449 record overall. This will be her first game against Missouri State.
About the Lady Bears
Missouri State owns a 7-3 record so far in the season and is undefeated, 3-0, at Great Southern Bank Arena. Second-year head coach Beth Cunningham returns six letterwinners from her WBIT squad from last season.
The Lady Bears have five double-figure scorers on their roster this season with three being starters. Kyrah Daniels leads the group with 11.9 points per game but is closely followed by Lainie Douglas (11.8), Lacy Stokes (11.8), Sarah Linthacum (10.9) and Kaemyn Bekemeier (10.4).
Daniels, Stokes and Linthacum make up three of the five everyday starters for the Lady Bears. Missouri State has used the same starting five all 10 games so far with the Paige Rocca and Kiley Bess averaging 9.0 and 5.1 points per game.
Missouri State is one of the country's best three-point shooting teams as they are averaging 6.8 three-point baskets per game. Their makes per game is just 121st nationally but the Lady Bears are 11th nationally with a 39.5 three-point percentage.
The Missouri State Series
Friday's matchup is the first of the series and just Southern Miss' seventh trip to Missouri. The Lady Eagles are 1-5 on the road in the Show Me State with a 1-4 record against Saint Louis in Saint Louis and an 0-1 record against Southeastern Missouri State in Cape Girardeau.
After This
Southern Miss will enjoy the Christmas break before returning to practice to prepare for Georgia State and Sun Belt Conference play.
Tipoff for the Lady Eagles' Sun Belt Conference opener is set for 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) on Sunday, Dec. 29, at Georgia State's Convocation Center in Atlanta.
Celebrating 50 Seasons of Southern Miss Women's Basketball
The 2024-25 season of Southern Miss Lady Eagle Basketball marks a major milestone for the program and for The University of Southern Mississippi as the women's basketball program celebrates its 50th season of competition. Following the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Southern Miss added women's basketball and women's tennis as official athletic programs beginning in the 1975-76 season. Since then, the Lady Eagles have laid out five decades of excellence on and off the court. To celebrate this golden jubilee, Southern Miss women's basketball will host its 50th Season Celebration and Reunion on Saturday, January 18, against South Alabama at Reed Green Coliseum.
Follow The Lady Eagles
Follow the Lady Eagles on Twitter (@SouthernMissWBB), Instagram (@southernmisswbb) or on Facebook (/SouthernMissWBB) to stay up-to-date on Southern Miss women's basketball. Fans can visit Southern Miss.com or download the Southern Miss GameDay app to see full schedules, releases and more.
– #McNelisStrong | #SMTTT –
Players Mentioned
C
/ Women's Basketball
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