The Missouri State Bears celebrated Senior Night the way Bear teams have done for nearly two decades as they shot lights-out in the second half and rolled to a 92-74 Missouri Valley Conference basketball win over the Drake Bulldogs Saturday night in Hammons Student Center before an overflow crowd of 8,916. It was the Bears’ 21st win in 30 games overall and they closed the regular season by winning their home finale for the 18th year in a row.
    The Bears finished in third place in the MVC with a 12-6 league record after having been picked for fourth in the preseason poll. Missouri State will take its third seed into next week’s State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis and a quarterfinal matchup Friday (March 2) at 8:30 p.m. against Wichita State.
    The Bears’ long-range shooting Saturday night keyed their win with a .409 (9/22) effort from three-point range. The nine treys moved the Bears’ season total to 226 and eclipsed the previous MSU season record of 220 from 1999-00. In addition, senior guard Blake Ahearn hit four from beyond the arc to hike his career total to 267. The previous career mark was 266 from Johnny Murdock (1991-95). Ahearn’s trey total for 2006-07 is now 85, third best season on record as he closed to within nine of Murdock’s season mark of 94 from 1992-93.
    After shooting .484 (15/31) from the floor in scratching out a 43-36 halftime lead, the Bears hit 17-of-27 (.630) from the field the second half, including five of seven three-point tries. Drake stayed within 10 through the first six minutes of the second half before Missouri State pushed its advantage well into double digits. The Bears’ biggest lead of the night was 20 at 74-54 with nine minutes to play and Drake didn’t get closer than 15 the rest of the way.
    The wild first half saw Missouri State start red-hot as the Bears ran out to an 18-6 edge seven minutes into the game. The Bears then cooled off and the Bulldogs scratched their way back into the contest. An 8-0 run around the five-minute mark of the half gave Drake its first lead at 29-27. Drew Richards put the Bears ahead to stay with a basket at the 3:27 mark and two free throws from Ahearn and dunks from Deven Mitchell and Richards built the halftime lead to seven.
   The Bears finished at .552 (32/58) from the floor while holding Drake to .400 (24/60) shooting. Drake had a 38-32 rebound advantage for the contest.
    Ahearn wound up with 24 points, including hitting all six of his free throws. Ahearn raised his season foul line accuracy figure to .934 (99/106) and moved his career mark to .948 (423/446) as he continued his chase of the NCAA all-time free throw percentage record.
    Juniors Richards and Mitchell each added 17 points to the Missouri State total and Tyler Chaney scored 12. All 11 Bears in uniform played and scored in the contest. Richards’s point total was a career high and he matched his season best with nine rebounds.
    Ajay Calvin had 19 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Drake effort. The Bulldogs slipped to 16-14 overall and fell to 6-12 in the Valley as they continued to bid for the school’s first winning season since 1986-87.
    The overflow crowd raised the Bears’ home season attendance total to 117,750, an average of 7,359 per game that’s the best home average for Missouri State since a 7,828 figure in 1999-00. It’s the 16th time the past 22 years the Bears have eclipsed 100,000 in total home attendance. Missouri State finished the year 12-4 at home to give the Bears a 377-100 (.790) overall home mark for 31 seasons in Hammons Student Center.
