Story: MSU Athletics
Missouri State rallied from a 20-point first-half deficit Thursday evening to earn a 96-90 victory over Oklahoma and advance to the Preseason WNIT Championship game against either No.7 Oregon State or 18th-ranked DePaul at 3:30 p.m. Central time Sunday, Nov. 17, on CBS Sports Network, site to be determined.
After the Sooners (2-1) hit the Lady Bears (4-0) with an early scoring barrage that included 11 consecutive makes to end the first quarter and eight 3-pointers to a 46-26 lead with 5:39 left until the half, Missouri State began to whittle away and got the halftime deficit to 51-39 before charging out of intermission.
After the Sooners pushed the margin back to 15 points early in the third quarter, Alexa Willard, Brice Calip, Jasmine Franklin, Mya Bhinhar and Abby Hipp all scored in a 14-0 run to make it 60-59 with 5:10 on the clock.
Willard hit a corner trey to tie the score at 62 with 4:03 remaining on the way to 16 third-quarter points and 29 in the game, and Bhinhar’s baseline jumper gave the Lady Bears a 66-64 lead with 3:18 left as the sophomore tallied a career-high 19 points.
The Lady Bears led 73-67 late in the third on a Willard jumper, and she buried another triple with 7:12 remaining for an 82-73 advantage.
The margin remained between six and nine points until the Sooners rattled off a 6-0 run to close to 89-86 at the 1:39 mark, and the MSU defense responded on the next two possessions while Bhinhar went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the final 27.1 seconds to seal the game.