The Missouri State Bears continue a busy stretch to close out December as they play five games in a span of nine days with the third of those five games Wednesday at Hammons Student Center in a 7:05 p.m. matchup against Bethune-Cookman University in the second round of the Findlay Toyolta Las Vegas Classic. The Bears opened tourney play and got back into the win column with a 64-53 home win over Texas-Pan American Monday night after starting their busy holiday slate with a 66-54 setback at Utah Saturday. The game at Utah came after a 10-day break in which the Bears took fall semester final exams. The Las Vegas Classic continues a busy stretch with five games in nine days leading up to a short break for Christmas.
  The loss at Utah and the win over UTPA moved the Bears to 6-3 for the season. The Bears played twice a week and a half earlier, losing 70-51 at Arkansas Dec. 3 and beat UNC Wilmington 73-66 at home Dec. 5. Missouri State opened its season with a 57-53 loss at Toledo, rolled past Harding (86-67) and UNC Greensboro (79-52) Nov. 16-17 to win the Price Cutter Classic at Hammons Student Center. The Bears then turned back Saint Louis (60-56) at home Nov. 21, and won at Winthrop (73-69) Nov. 25 before the two-game split to open December.
 
 Last Games: The Bears jumped into a 14-2 lead Monday at HSC against UT-Pan American, saw the Broncs cut it to five, went back ahead by 12, and had the margin sliced to 26-19 at halftime. The Bears took their biggest lead at 43-30 midway through the second half but UTPA got hot from the free throw line and the Bears cooled off from the stripe and the visitors cut the MSU lead to 50-48. From there, key threes and key defensive plays inched the Bears’ advantage back up and Missouri State hit some free throws down the stretch to win by 11. Deven Mitchell was perfect from the line in eight attempts and had 14 points, five rebounds and three steals. Chris Cooks scored 13, Drew Richards added 12 points with seven boards and five blocks, and Spencer Laurie scored a season-high 12. UTPA dropped to 6-7 for the season.
  Just 48 hours earlier, the Bears owned a 9-6 lead early in the game at Salt Lake City when the Utes went on a 16-2 run which pushed Utah ahead to stay at 22-11. Utah expanded that lead to 17 at the half, 37-20. The Bears scored the first six points of the second half to get back within 11 points, and narrowed the gap to six at 41-35 with 12:16 remaining. Utah got a trey and the Bears scored with 11:31 to play to make it 44-37. Missouri State then went scoreless for nearly seven and a half minutes, during which time Utah was only able to get eight points, but the lead went back into double digits and stayed there. Utah collected just one basket the last nine minutes of the game and only seven field goals in the second half but connected on 15 of 16 free throws over the last nine minutes to stay comfortably in front. Dale Lamberth scored 18 and Deven Mitchell added 14 to lead the Bears. Luke Nevill scored 18 for Utah, now 6-3.
 Bethune-Cookman: The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats opened the season with four straight losses, bounced back with four straight victories, and then dipped to 4-5 for the season with an 80-58 setback at Iowa State Monday in a Las Vegas Classic first-round matchup. Other BCU losses were to Warner Southern, Florida Gulf Coast, at Purdue and at Stetson before victories over Edward Waters, Florida A&M, Stetson and Southeastern. Guard Jimmy Hudson at 14.6 is the team’s top scorer but has been slowed by an ankle sprain. Transfer forward John Holmes has a 14.3 scoring figure and is the team’s top rebounder at 4.9 a game. The Wildcats were 9-21 last year and finished ninth in the MEAC with a 6-12 league record.
 Missouri State is in its 96th season of intercollegiate basketball and the Bears are coming off a 22-11 season which saw them finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season race with a 12-6 mark, reach the semifinals of the State Farm MVC Tourney and play in the National Invitation Tourney. It was the Bears’ third straight NIT appearance. This is the Bears’ third year as Missouri State (previously Southwest Missouri State).
  This week’s four-game schedule concludes a busy Missouri State non-league slate in which the Bears visit five states before Christmas. After Bethune-Cookman Wednesday, the team heads west for the semifinals and finals of the Las Vegas Classic at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., Dec. 22-23. MSU plays Alabama in the semifinals and the other semifinal event pits Purdue and Iowa State. There’s a parallel four-team tourney at Vegas involving Bethune-Cookman, Texas-Pan American, Texas Southern and Wofford. The Bears open Missouri Valley Conference play Dec. 30 at defending league champ Southern Illinois and the team’s only remaining non-conference game is a home test in an O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters test Feb. 22 or 23, with the opponent to be announced in early February.
 Hammons Student Center Farewell, JQH here next year: The 2007-08 season is the Bears’ 32nd and final year of basketball in Hammons Student Center. The new $67 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena is being constructed just east of HSC and will be ready for the opening of the 2008-09 Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears basketball season.
 The Coaches: Barry Hinson (Oklahoma State, ’83) is 158-104 in his ninth year at Missouri State and 194-127 overall in his 11th year as a college head coach. He’s 0-0 vs. BCU. Hinson is fifth on the all-time MSU coaching win list and is the sixth Bears’ coach to post 100 wins.
 Clifford Reed (Bethune-Cookman, ’91) is 63-106 in his sixth year at BCU and overall as a college head coach. He’s 0-0 vs. MSU.
 Series Record: Missouri State leads, 1-0. The Bears beat the Wildcats 85-51 in 1989-90 at Hammons in the only previous meeting between the two schools.
