BEARS RUN PAST TOLEDO IN OPENER
November 11, 2006 | Men's Basketball
The Missouri State Bears answered the challenge of a University of Toledo run which cut a 16-point lead to four in the second half and turned up the pressure at both ends of the floor to run out to a 79-66 win over the Rockets Saturday in Hammons Student Center in the regular season basketball opener for both teams.
A 14-2 run late in the first half by the Bears moved a 20-19 advantage out to a 34-21 lead in the final minute of the period and Missouri State led 34-23 at halftime. After Toledo hit the first two buckets of the second half, Blake Ahearn answered for Missouri State with his fifth and sixth three-pointers of the night to get the lead back into double digits and the Bears’ 47-31 bulge five minutes into the second half was their biggest lead of the game to that point.
Toledo warmed up again from long range, just as the Rockets had at the start of the contest, and three straight treys sliced the MSU margin to 56-52 with 6:54 to play as Toledo outscored Missouri State 21-9 over a period of nine minutes.
The Bears slowly moved the lead back to nine points from the foul line and then Dale Lamberth took over. He scored nine points in a row to keep the lead in double digits down the stretch.
Lamberth finished with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go with four rebounds and two steals. Ahearn had 22 and added four rebounds and three assists, and Nathan Bilyeu gave the Bears a third double-figure scorer with 12 points. Drew Richards hauled down nine rebounds, added nine points and blocked four shots, Shane Laurie had six rebounds, and Spencer Laurie, playing in his first Missouri State game, scored six points and had seven assists.
The Bears finished at .520 (26/50) from the field and a .545 second half pulled Toledo to .466 (27/58) for the game.
Keonta Howell had 23 points and seven rebounds to lead the Rockets, while Missouri State had a 32-30 rebound edge for the contest.
The Bears are now off for eight days before they begin play in the four-game South Padre Island Invitational when they play host to Delaware State in Hammons on Nov. 19. Tipoff is 3:05 p.m.
