Now a Lady Bear, Mount Vernon’s Lacy Stokes is still out to prove her doubters wrong

From the very beginning of her basketball career, Lacy Stokes has heard the same criticism about her over and over again.

“You know, going into high school, I heard it,” Stokes said. “‘She’s small. You don’t really know what she can do. It’s different than middle school.'”

Stokes, a 5-foot-4 guard, went on to be a four-year starter at Mount Vernon. She scored 2,132 points while averaging 17.5 per outing en route to leading her team to a state runner-up finish her senior year.

The Class 4 all-state performer who scored 29 points in a semifinal game at Great Southern Bank Arena committed to play Division II basketball at Missouri Southern.

“And then it goes ‘well, Division II is different than high school,'” Stokes said. “They still didn’t know if I was going to have that success.”

More: What has Beth Cunningham excited for her second year as Missouri State Lady Bears coach

Stokes immediately became one of the best players Missouri Southern ever had. In her two years, she became the fourth player in the Joplin-based school’s history to receive back-to-back All-America honors. She was her conference’s player of the year as a freshman and averaged 17.3 points, 5.2 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 steals as a sophomore.

She entered the transfer portal to see if her next challenge was out there. She heard from Wichita State and nearly every Division II program she faced until former Mount Vernon and Missouri State standout Kenzie Kostas got her on the phone.

“It was a conversation to catch up because I hadn’t gotten to talk to her for a long time,” Kostas, who had watched Stokes throughout the years at different Mount Vernon and Missouri State basketball camps, said. “But she knew why I was calling.”

Stokes was on Missouri State’s campus within the week. Cunningham offered and Stokes quickly accepted the chance to prove herself at the next level — only to hear the same criticism.

And she’s ready to rise above others’ expectations once again.

“It’s the same thing,” Stokes laughed. “‘Well, Division I is different than Division II.’ It’s just the same chip of ‘well I don’t know if she can still do that here.’

“I guess I enjoy proving people wrong.”

Stokes will face her next challenge as she is expected to be Missouri State’s starting point guard heading into the 2023-24 season. The Lady Bears open with an exhibition against Missouri Western on Nov. 1 before tipping off the regular season on the road at Little Rock on Nov. 6.

Everywhere Stokes has played, she’s risen well above expectations although she’s considered an “undersized guard.” She will fill the role left behind by Aniya Thomas who played one season for Missouri State after transferring in from Kansas.

Cunningham has no worries about making Stokes her starting point guard from opening night.

“Lacy’s as fast as they come,” Cunningham said. “She’s fast, she can defend and she’s going to push the tempo for us. She’s small in stature, but I think she has all those intangibles that you can’t teach.

“She plays with a chip on her shoulder and brings passion every day she steps on the floor.”

Stokes won’t have to prove to her teammates that she’s a capable Division I player, because she already has. The energy she brings to the floor has multiple teammates calling her the “energizer bunny.” She’s constantly running from one drill to the next and she’s constantly being told to slow down during walk-throughs.

She’s already in command of the floor and putting teammates in the correct places while setting up scoring opportunities for others and herself. Her quickness and IQ for the game have impressed the coaching staff and older players on the team who had played alongside the Lady Bears’ great point guards they’ve had in recent years.

“She’s just always on one,” senior guard Paige Rocca said. “She’s what you want in a point guard. She sets the tone.”

Kostas laughed and admitted Stokes was probably a better high school basketball player than she was when they both wore Mountaineer green. It’s high praise from a two-time all-state performer who led Mount Vernon to a Class 3 state title as a junior and then went on to be a two-time All-MVC player during her last two seasons in maroon and white.

Kostas has won everywhere she’s been, whether it was when she’s had the uniform on or when she’s been on the sideline. She recognizes what a player can bring to the team, no matter their height.

“I think she just affects winning in a good way and her teammates see it,” Kostas said. “Her teammates trust her and what she’s able to do as a leader on the court with all the things she can do from a basketball standpoint and the true leadership and intangible stuff with playing hard every day and competing. It makes her just super important to our team.”

Stokes will enter the season knowing she’s capable of playing at the high level she’s played ever since she’s picked up a basketball. She’s worked for everything she’s earned while putting herself in a position to be the starting point guard for a team she was the ball girl for a few times as a little kid.

Doubt Stokes if you dare, but she’s proven all of her doubters wrong so far and she plans on doing it again.

“People out of high school thought ‘well, this is what you are, at most,'” Stokes said. “I wanted to show them ‘you don’t know what I am at most.’

“I can be whatever I want to be.”

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He’s also the host of the weekly “Wyatt’s World Podcast” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Lacy Stokes: Missouri State Lady Bears guard proving doubters wrong