The Missouri State basketball Bears took a big early lead and then got key plays down the stretch to hold off the Texas-Pan American Broncs 64-53 Monday night at Hammons Student Center in the opening round of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic. The Bears stayed unbeaten at home and climbed to 6-3 for the season while UTPA fell to 6-7 on the year.
  Hustle plays in the open court and good shooting from the floor the second half, particularly from three-point range, enabled the Bears to overcome second-half rebound challenges and game-long foul shooting woes. The Bears hit just .567 (17/30) from the line in the game, and missed the front ends of three bonus situations. The Broncs, by comparison, were 16-of-17 from the line the second half but got only seven field goals after intermission and just 16 buckets for the game.
  Missouri State jumped into a 14-2 lead eight minutes into the game. UTPA got back within five points at 17-12. The Bears again went up by a dozen at 26-14, but UTPA closed to within 26-19 at intermission.
  In the second half, the Bears got an early trey from Justin Fuehrmeyer and two from Spencer Laurie to push their advantage to the biggest lead of the night at 43-30 with 11:05 to play. Missed free throws by the Bears and made charity tosses by UTPA sliced that margin to 48-46 and then 50-48 at the three-minute mark. Threes by Fuehrmeyer and Laurie nudged the lead back to seven and then Mitchell and Fuehrmeyer sparkled on defense with steals near midcourt that enabled the Bears to hike their final margin back into double digits.
  Missouri State’s .571 field goal accuracy the second half moved the Bears to .500 (21/42) percent for the game to .372 (16/43) by UTPA. Rebounds were even at 29-29 after the Bears had had a six-rebound margin at halftime.
 The Bears’ 13 missed free throws didn’t include Deven Mitchell who was perfect in eight attempts from the line and led all scorers with 14 points. Chris Cooks was 5-of-6 from the floor and scored 13, while Drew Richards and Laurie added a dozen points each. Richards had seven rebounds and five blocked shots while Mitchell pulled down five boards and had three steals. Zach Trader led UTPA with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
 The Bears host a second-round game in the Las Vegas Classic Wednesday (Dec. 19) when Bethune-Cookman comes to Hammons. Tipoff is 7:05 p.m. The tourney then shifts to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and a Saturday matchup for the Bears against Alabama (7 p.m., CST). The other semifinal pairing Saturday pits Iowa State and Purdue. Finals are Sunday.
