The Missouri State basketball Bears got off to slow starts in both halves Wednesday night in Peoria, Ill., and a strong finish wasn’t enough to bring them back as they dropped an 83-71 Missouri Valley Conference decision to the Bradley Braves. It was the Bears’ fourth Valley loss in a row and and their 10th straight setback away from Hammons Student Center as they slipped to 11-13 for the season and 4-8 in league play.
  Bradley, meanwhile, continued its recent surge with the return from injury of all-MVC senior guard Daniel Ruffin as the Braves won their sixth straight game and moved to 14-10 for the year and 7-5 in the Valley. The Braves are 11-3 this season when Ruffin has been in the lineup.
 The Bears were able to chop 20 points off a 29-point deficit early in the second half but could get no closer as the Braves drilled in a bushel of free throws to go with their always-effective three-point shooting prowess.
 The loss snapped a string of four straight Missouri State wins over the Braves. The Bears finally got untracked and poured in 52 points over the final 16 minutes of the contest but were unable to make up for having collected just 19 points through the first 24 minutes of the game.
 The first half was a shooting standoff as the Bears hit just .269 (7/26) from the field and Bradley was hardly better at .296 (8/27). The Braves, however, got four more treys to fall than did the Bears, and Bradley added 15-of-16 from the foul line while Missouri State could manage just 4-of-8 from the stripe. The roof fell in after intermission as the Braves got the first dozen points of the second half and ran out to a 48-19 lead before the Bears could score.
 A 14-0 run got the Bears back within shouting distance at 53-40 but Missouri State crawled back inside a double-digit deficit just once, at 63-54 with six minutes to play.
 Both team shot 50 percent from the field the second half and both wound up just over 40 percent for the game. Bradley converted 29-of-35 free throws for the night and cashed in 12-of-27 three-point tries while Missouri State could manage just 14-of-19 charity tries and only 7-of-22 three-pointers. The Bears had a 38-35 rebound margin for the game but couldn’t offset the damage done by getting 16 of their 19 turnovers in the first half.
 Ruffin continued to lead his team’s recent surge as he was perfect in a dozen trips to the foul line and led all scorers with 25 points while handing out seven assists. Andrew Warren scored 19 and Theron Wilson had 13 points and 13 rebounds. Deven Mitchell led Missouri State with 17 points while Dale Lamberth had his second point-rebound double-double of the season against Bradley as he scored 15 and hauled in 10 boards. Justin Fuehrmeyer nailed four treys in the second half to score 14 for the Bears.
 Missouri State comes home to entertain the University of Northern Iowa Panthers in Valley action Saturday (Feb. 9) in Hammons Student Center. Tipoff is 7:05 p.m.
