Two nights after having their four-game winning streak snapped, the Missouri State basketball Bears paid it forward with a solid defensive effort that produced a 73-66 win over UNC Wilmington in Hammons Student Center Wednesday night. The win snapped the Seahawks’ four-game win streak and dropped them to 5-3 for the season while the Bears moved to 5-2.
Missouri State opened up its biggest margin of the night at 60-46 with 5:27 to play before a 9-1 run by UNCW sliced the advantage to 61-57 with 2:16 remaining. Deven Mitchell popped in two free throws and Shane Laurie nailed a trey to make it 66-59 with 1:07 remaining. UNCW hit two more buckets to get within a trey at 67-64 with half a minute left but two more free throws by Mitchell and a three-point play and another free throw by Laurie put the issue out of reach. Missouri State moved its all-time series advantage to 4-0 over UNCW and improved to 4-0 at home this season.
After dropping a 19-point decision at Arkansas Monday night, the Bears got strong efforts on defense and the boards in the first half Wednesday. A 12-0 Missouri State run turned a 20-15 deficit into a 27-20 lead as the Bears held the Seahawks scoreless for over five minutes late in the first half. Missouri State’s halftime lead was 34-25.
UNCW bolted with a 10-2 run to start the second half and sliced the Bears’ lead to two at 37-35 before Missouri State went up by nine at 46-37. UNCW got back within four with 12:44 to play and then a 14-4 MSU run over the next seven minutes got the Bears their 60-46 advantage.
Missouri State held UNCW to .290 (9/31) shooting from the field the first half in building the nine-point intermission lead. MSU also had a 22-16 rebound advantage the first half. The Seahawks hit over 50 percent from the floor the second half, much of it in the closing minutes of the contest, to finish at .413 (26/63) shooting for the game. The Bears were at .481 (25/52) for the night.
  Mitchell and Laurie bettered their existing career point highs by one each. Mitchell tossed in 7-of-13 from the field and 11-of-13 from the line to score 25 points and notched 10 rebounds for a double-double while adding a pair of blocked shots. Laurie was 6-of-8 from the floor and scored 17 points as the other Bear in double figures. Daniel Fountain scored 15 for UNCW, Vladimir Kuljanin had 15 points and 10 boards and T.J. Carter led Seahawk scoring with 17 points.
 The Bears now break for fall semester final exams and don’t play for 10 days. Missouri State’s next action is Dec. 15 against the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Tipoff is 1:05 p.m. (CST).
