The Missouri State basketball Bears overcame a 13-point deficit with eight minutes left in the game to gain a tie with three minutes remaining only to slip behind again down the stretch in a 75-65 Missouri Valley Conference loss Thursday in Hammons Student Center to the University of Northern Iowa Panthers. The loss ended a 15-game Bears’ home win streak in Hammons, a streak which matched the Bears’ second longest in the 31-year life of HSC.
    The loss also dropped the Bears out of a first-place tie in the roller-coaster MVC race as Creighton stayed all alone in the top spot with its home win Thursday over Bradley. CU is 6-2, UNI is 5-2 and Missouri State and Southern Illinois are tied for third at 5-3. The Bears slipped to 14-5 for the season while UNI moved to 14-4.
    The win was Northern Iowa’s third straight over the Bears in Hammons, and Missouri State’s first home loss since Jan. 22, 2006, to Wichita State. The Bears are 9-1 at home this season.
    Missouri State, playing its third game in six days, faltered shooting the basketball in the second half. After hitting 54 percent from the field and 71 percent from three-point range before intermission, the Bears bottomed out to 25 percent from the field and hit just two of 12 threes the second half. The Bears struggled all night from the foul line, finishing at a season-low .519 (14/27) and missed the front ends of three bonus situations. The Bears’ final .379 (22/58) field goal accuracy figure was their second lowest of the campaign.
    Hitting five of their first six tries from long range, the Bears raced out to nine-point leads at 25-16 and 28-19 but the Panthers poured in 8-of-10 threes in the first half for a 22-7 run which gave UNI a 41-35 halftime advantage.
    The suddenly cold-shooting Bears did little to dig into their deficit after intermission as UNI pushed ahead by 11 at 51-40 and then grabbed its biggest lead at 61-48 with 7:57 to play. Two three-pointers and two steals by Nathan Bilyeu fueled a 12-0 Bears’ run that cut the gap to a point and a jumper by Drew Richards and a free throw by Tyler Chaney got the game even at 63-63 with 3:03 to play. From there, the Bears made no field goals and only two of four free throws as UNI collected two baskets from Travis Brown, a trey by Jared Josten and five free throws. Very quickly the final margin was back to double digits and the MSU home win streak was at an end.
    Balanced UNI put all five starters in twin figures, led by point-rebound double-doubles from Grant Stout, 15 and 12; and Eric Coleman, 10 and 10. Brown scored 15 points and Brooks McKowen and Josten had 14 each. The Panthers finished at .647 (11/17) from three-point range and .512 from the field for the game.
    Bilyeu led the Bears with 12 points and nine rebounds and Richards was the only other Missouri State player in double figures in points with 11. The Bears forced 19 UNI turnovers but couldn’t convert that advantage into enough points to do them any good. UNI finished with a 37-36 lead on the boards..
    Missouri State goes back on the road Sunday (Jan. 21) for a quick rematch with the Evansville team the Bears beat in Springfield Jan. 9. Tipoff is 3:35 p.m.
