The No. 1 seed Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters fell to No. 6 Missouri State 43-38 in the championship game of the 2026?Air National Guard Conference USA Women’s Tournament Saturday in Huntsville, Ala.
The loss ended Louisiana Tech’s winning streak at 19. The Lady Techsters (26-6) defeated the Bears twice in the regular season.
Missouri State (22-12) receives the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Louisiana Tech, the conference’s regular-season champion, will learn its fate Sunday when the 68-team bracket is revealed starting at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Both teams struggled offensively throughout the game. The Lady Techsters led 26-23 at the half. Louisiana Tech scored just five points in the third quarter and Missouri State took a 37-31 lead.
The Bears took their largest lead of the game at 39-31 early in the fourth. The Lady Techsters got within six on a Paris Bradley layup with 8:04 left in the game.
Then both teams went the next 7:37 without scoring. Bradley broke the drought with a 3-pointer with 33 seconds left, cutting the deficit to 39-36.
Missouri State’s Kaemyn Bekemeier was fouled with 30 seconds left and made both free throws. Averi Aaron made a driving layup to get the Lady Techsters within three against with 14 seconds left.
After a timeout, Maycee James was immediately fouled. She sank both free throws with 13 seconds left. Louisiana Tech’s Jianna Morris missed a long 3-pointer with and the Bears got the rebound with 10 seconds to play.
The Lady Techsters shot just 23 percent (15-of-66) from the field. They were 5-of-21 from 3-point range.
The Bears shot 33 percent (17-of-52) and were 2-of-10 from 3-point range.
Louisiana Tech went to the free throw line only four times and made three. Missouri State was 7-of-10.
Turnovers were a positive for the Lady Techsters. They forced 15 while having only eight.
Bradley and Aaron led Louisiana Tech with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Bradley and Jordan Marshall had eight rebounds each.
Bekemeier and Lainey Douglas led Missouri State with 16 and 15 points, respectively.