The Missouri State Bears jumped out to a quick early lead, lost their momentum, and couldn’t get it back in a 79-71 loss to the defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Southern Illinois Salukis Sunday afternoon in Carbondale, Ill., in the 2007-08 Valley basketball opener for both teams.
 The Bears put up solid numbers in virutally all phases of the game, shooting 46 percent from the floor, 79 percent from the foul line, 61 percent from three-point range and controlling the rebounds 31-24. But, the Bears committed 18 turnovers to just eight for SIU and the resulting increased possessions resulted in eight more field goal attempts for SIU and the Salukis got four of them to fall for their final margin.
 The Bears lost their third straight game and slipped to 7-6 for the season while SIU evened its record at 6-6 while winning its 54th home conference start in its last 55 MVC outings in SIU Arena.
 In connecting on a .616 (11/18) percentage from three-point range for the game while hitting 8-of-23 two-point tries, the Bears had more threes than twos in a contest for just the third time in 665 games since the three-point field goal was added in 1986-87. The other such occasions included Missouri State school records of 14 threes (with 12 two-pointers) at UNC Wilmington 12/9/06 and 14 threes (with 11 two-pointers) at Drake 2/18/95.
 Missouri State hit some early shots and jumped in front 10-4 and 16-9 at the start of the contest. SIU fought back and got ties at 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 and 27 before a late surge pushed the Salukis into a 37-29 halftime advantage. The SIU lead ranged from eight to 12 points most of the second half. The Bears got some late treys to get back within four at 75-71 in the final minute but could get no closer.
 Deven Mitchell hit 6-of-9 from the field and all 11 of his free throw attempts for a game-high 23 points while Justin Fuehrmeyer hit five treys and scored a career-high 19 points and Dale Lamberth added 13. Bryan Mullins scored 19 to lead SIU. Mitchell was also the game’s top rebounder with nine.
 Fuehrmeyer continued his recent long-range hot streak for the Bears. He’s now hit .560 (13/25) from beyond the arc in his last four games after hitting just one three in the team’s first nine outings.
 Missouri State now has three straight home games as the Valley schedule gets into high gear. The Bears start that homestand when they entertain Bradley Wednesday (Jan. 2) at Hammons Student Center. Tipoff is 7:05 p.m.
