Stokes wants to prove she belongs with the Lady Bears

SPRINGFIELD, Mo–The Missouri State Lady Bears won 20 games last season and earned a bid to the WNIT.

Beth Cunningham returns for her second season as the Lady Bears coach.

And she has six returning players and eight newcomers.

Five players on the team hail from the Show-Me state, including two of those newcomers.

Kaemen Bekemeir played her high school ball at Republic.

Lacy Stokes played at Mt Vernon, and then played two seasons at division two Missouri Southern before transferring to the Lady Bears this summer.

Beth Cunningham says she’s going to use Stokes as the Lady Bears point guard.

And the junior says she’s up for the challenge.

“Going into high school it was oh, she’s small. You really don’t know what she can go against them. It’s different from middle school, she’s in high school now. Next it was college, division two is different then high school. You don’t know if she’ll have that success. It’s the same thing now. Division one is different then division two. It’s the same chip of I don’t know if she can still do that here. I guess I just enjoy proving people wrong,” said Stokes.