Ozarks Digitial Desk: Recapping Lady Bears 1st Round WBIT Victory
MSU scored a program record 107 points in the team's 31-point victory against the Golden Eagles. It broke the previous mark of 104 points set back in 2001, by the Jackie Styles led SMS Final Four team, who beat Washington 104-87 in the Elite 8.
With Thursday night's win, the Lady Bears will get to host their round two contest against Minnesota. There were just over 2,000 fans in attendance at Great Southern Bank Arena for Thursday night, but with Spring Break coming to an end on Sunday, their might be a higher turnout. Head Coach Beth Cunningham is hoping so. She said after the game that her team is 'worth the price of admission,' and anyone who's watched this squad for most of the season can certainly echo that sentiment.
Take a listen to Chris Pinson and Dan recap the victory and listen to Coach Cunningham and Lacy Stokes with their postgame comments in the latest breakdown.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jesse McCulloch – now healthy – big key for Michigan State basketball's future
HOLT – Without playing a single game this summer, Jesse McCulloch was one of Michigan State basketball's biggest buzzes of the Moneyball Pro-Am summer league. When play began a little more than a month ago, the redshirt freshman big man arrived in a walking boot. A stress fracture in his right foot required a six-week rehab, limiting him during offseason workouts with the Spartans and keeping him from joining his teammates on the court in the fun-and-gun pro-am, even though he frequently showed up to support them during their two games a week in the Lansing area. As Moneyball winds up its playoffs, though, McCulloch is back healthy and practicing with MSU. RELATED: Couch: Aidan Chiles endured last MSU football season 'over and over' again on film. He's ready for a new chapter. 'I'm feeling great. I'm feeling a lot better than I was before,' the 6-foot-10, 240-pound Cleveland native said Tuesday, July 29, after rejoining the Spartans' workouts a few days earlier. 'I'm just trying to get back in the best shape as possible. Just getting back into the best shape, being as athletic as I was – just getting back to the old me, for real.' McCulloch again sat on the sidelines at Holt High School's gymnasium for the semifinals Tuesday, with the championship and final games of the summer league set for Thursday, July 31. Admission is free. While Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper dominated their competition there, McCulloch watched and eagerly waited to join them on the court when the Spartans' season tips off in November. McCulloch quietly played a big behind-the-scenes role in MSU winning the Big Ten title and advancing to the Elite Eight, which included two NCAA tournament wins in his hometown to get there. Kohler felt there were points early last season when he thought the Spartans might have pulled McCulloch's redshirt when needing more toughness on the block. But he added his young teammate's performance on MSU's scout team helped push himself, Cooper and since-graduated Szymon Zapala to be better. 'He just brings a fire to our team,' Kohler said Tuesday. 'The fact that he's through a little bit of the process as a redshirt, he knows what to expect. He knows in terms of day-to-day practice how tough the daily grind is gonna be. He's putting in the work. And he brings us a unique post-scoring ability and a defensive toughness.' Kohler said one area where McCulloch will need to adjust in transitioning from practice to games is in not getting overly aggressive, which showed with fouls during his two exhibition game appearances before taking the redshirt. But McCulloch has proven to be a sponge receiving information from the veterans. 'Last year really helped me a lot, just learning from Szymon, Coop and Jaxon,' he said. 'Learning from those guys, watching how they played, and I added that to my game. And in the middle of the year, I really felt good about my game. And that just helped me so much last year. I feel like last year just helped my overall game in every aspect. In putting the ball on the floor, facing up, shooting, defense. It just helped me in every aspect of my game.' A three-star prospect in 2024, McCulloch averaged 22.4 points, 14.1 rebounds, 4.3 blocks and 2.0 assists per game as a senior for Lutheran East High in Cleveland. 'He's gonna give us that good post presence that we need and physicality that's gonna wear people out,' Cooper said Tuesday. 'He's gonna be a pest on the boards. And offensively and defensively, he's gonna bring that energy we need off the bench to come in and help us win games.' MSU coach Tom Izzo, in announcing McCulloch's redshirt in November, gushed about the potential for his big man and compared him to 'Al Anagonye, except he can shoot 3s' – though Kohler, who began taking more deep shots last season, cautioned that McCulloch will need learn like he did about how and when to take them in game situations and within the flow of MSU's offense. 'I think he has the greenlight, because in practice, he's a very good midrange and 3-point shooter,' Kohler said. 'I think the only reason why I backtrack that is just because he hasn't played in a game quite yet. And shooting in a game is different than shooting in practice. I'd say in the preseason, maybe he tries it out. And if he stays consistent in working on his shot and it looks good in practice, I think he'll have the greenlight, too. 'The farther you can play away from the basket the better in terms of bigs. And I think Jesse has the ability to do that.' After giving Xavier Booker two years worth of chances, MSU lost the former five-star recruit to transfer to UCLA after the season ended. Izzo added size on the perimeter with Kaleb Glenn (now out for the year with a knee injury), and both incoming freshmen Cam Ward and Jordan Scott also are more wing players at 6-7. But after bringing in Zapala last year as a transfer, the Spartans did not add another post player this offseason to offset the Booker departure – another sign Izzo is banking on McCulloch to be in the mix for minutes with Kohler, Cooper and Ward on the block. 'It means a lot to me personally just knowing that he has trust in me. And he has trust in our whole big man crew this year,' McCulloch said. 'We're gonna make him proud.' Contact Chris Solari: csolari@ Follow him @chrissolari. Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Healthy Jesse McCulloch big key for Michigan State basketball's future
Dominion Post
2 days ago
- Dominion Post
Mark Kellogg's tinkering with WVU women's hoops schedule has brought the program an upgrade
MORGANTOWN — Mark Kellogg has spent two years evaluating and calculating in an attempt to find the sweet spot when it comes to strength-of-schedule (SOS) numbers. It ended up being an exercise of frustration of sorts. Two 25-win seasons under Kellogg produced nothing better than a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament for the Mountaineers, despite being ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 all of last season and for nine weeks during his first season. As to how that was possible, it's a 50-50 answer. As in WVU's overall SOS was ranked No. 55 last season, 52nd the year before. 'You don't want to over-schedule, but you don't want to under-schedule, either,' Kellogg said. 'That's the delicate balance. How do you get the right schedule for the team you are expecting to have? We maybe under-scheduled it a bit last year, looking back at it. We'll wait and see what this year looks like, but hopefully it's the right schedule.' It is a schedule that will be noticeably different, beginning with no match-up against rival Pitt. In the current landscape of NET and strength of schedule rankings, losing the Panthers may not be a bad thing. Pitt is a combined 21-43 over the last two seasons, and even a road win over the Panthers does little to change the needle in terms of SOS. WVU will also travel to Texas A&M and Temple will travel to Morgantown, in what are return games from last season. What will be new is Georgia Tech and Villanova will also visit the Coliseum this season. Those two teams combined for 43 wins last season, with Georgia Tech advancing to the NCAA tournament, while Villanova advanced to the semifinals of the WBIT. During Thanksgiving, the Mountaineers will participate in the Baha Mar Hoops tournament in the Bahamas, with Ohio State, Alabama and Minnesota being possible opponents. A game against Minnesota would pit WVU against former head coach Dawn Plitzuweit, who coached WVU to the 2023 NCAA tournament before leaving for Minnesota. The bigger scheduling news is Kellogg said WVU is signed to play against 'a top 10 opponent' at The Greenbrier Resort in November. The opponent is expected to be announced as soon as Thursday. 'I think we've got some challenges in front of us that we need to play well to win,' Kellogg said. 'Hopefully our nonconference (schedule) will be helped. That's probably what held us back to being a six (seed) last season instead of a five.' The ultimate goal is to get WVU in a position to host one of the 16 regionals in the NCAA tournament, Kellogg said. There's really two ways to accomplish that. Short of putting together a magical 30-win season and dominating the Big 12, WVU's other option is putting together another top-25 caliber season against a schedule that is ranked in the 20s or 30s rather than the 50s. Finding that scheduling comfort is no easy task. Power Five teams outside of the Big 12 may have no interest in traveling to Morgantown. Kellogg said caution must also be used as to not creating a super schedule just for the purpose of being able to say WVU plays a great schedule. 'You don't want to go too much the other way, either,' Kellogg said. 'You get beat up too much and you're not prepared or don't have the right mindset going into Big 12 play. 'If you slip a little bit and lose those nonconference games, that doesn't help you either.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame: Lauren Aitch-Guerrant reached high school, college, pro goals in basketball
Lauren Aitch-Guerrant tried a lot of sports during her childhood. Volleyball, softball, gymnastics and soccer, among others. But nothing resonated for Aitch-Guerrant like basketball. "One of the things I loved about the game is that it came very natural and it wasn't something that was really difficult," Aitch-Guerrant said. Trips to IM West on Michigan State's campus with her father, Matthew Aitch, who played basketball at MSU and professionally for the Indiana Pacers, helped foster that passion. And those hoops sessions served as the early stages in a special journey that has resulted in Aitch-Guerrant earning a spot in the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame. Aitch-Guerrant is part of a class that will be inducted on Aug. 7 during a ceremony at the Lansing Center. "I'm very humbled and just very grateful," Aitch-Guerrant said. "It definitely made me reminisce on my team as a student-athlete, both in high school and in college. I got to reflect on some of those great opportunities that I had and reflect on a lot of the wins that we had with my teams and my teammates and coaches and all that." Aitch-Guerrant found success at all levels in her basketball career, first at Waverly where she helped the Warriors finish 26-1 and win a Class A state championship in 2004 while finishing fifth in the state's Miss Basketball voting. She followed her father's footsteps by playing collegiately at MSU and made her mark off the bench in the program for squads that made runs in the NCAA and WNIT tournaments. And Aitch-Guerrant ended her basketball career with a successful year professionally in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she won a championship in 2011. As she looks back on it now, Aitch-Guerrant reached a lot of the goals she wrote out with a gel pen on a red sheet of paper as a high school freshman. "I wrote out five or six goals and one of those was to have a state championship, another one was to get great grades all throughout high school," Aitch-Guerrant said. "And then another one was to come to college and play basketball and win some championships and then also to play professionally and I was able to achieve all those things. "Looking back on that, I definitely feel like God really made a path and he allowed me to do the things that I needed to do." Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@ Follow him on X @brian_calloway. 49th Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame When: Aug. 7; 4:30 — Welcome; 5:30 — Dinner; 6:30 — Induction ceremony Where: Lansing Center Tickets: $40 per person, call (517) 484-0677 or email everyb21@ for information. 2025 inductees: Lauren Aitch, Jack Anderson, Casey Cunningham, Steve Maidlow, Phil Magsig, Casey Rost, Beth Swears, Carlton Valentine, 1981 Okemos girls basketball, 1999 Williamston wrestling Sponsors: Magic Johnson Enterprises, Dean Transportation, Shaheen Chevrolet and Cadillac, ASAP Printing, Roland Carter Enterprise, The Bleacher Denizen, One North Kitchen & Bar, Applegate Home Comfort, AF Group, Dan Henry Distributing, Edward Jones Investments, Gregory Eaton Associates This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: GL Sports Hall inductee Lauren Aitch-Guerrant achieved hoop dreams
