The Missouri State Bears got off to a strong start offensively and stayed strong defensively and in rebounding for 40 minutes as they rolled to a 69-46 victory over the Evansville Purple Aces Thursday night in the first round of the State Farm Insurance Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo.
The seventh-seeded Bears’ fourth straight win matches their longest winning streak of the season and advances them to a quarterfinal meeting with second-seeded Illinois State Friday at 6:05 p.m. at Scottrade.
All 10 Bears who played reached the stat sheet in both scoring and rebounding as the Bears’ 23-point scoring margin was their fourth biggest of the season and their 27-point rebound bulge--47 to 20--was easily their most lopsided of the campaign. The win moved Missouri State to 17-15 on the year while Evansville closed its campaign 9-21.
Missouri State took full advantage of two long Evansville scoring droughts--one in each half--to take solid control of the contest as they beat the Aces for the second time in three meetings this season. Evansville was within a point of the Bears at 12-11 eight minutes into the game when Missouri State held the Aces scoreless for seven minutes during a 14-0 run that made it 26-11.
    The Bears put the game away by holding Evansville scoreless the first 7:35 minutes after intermission and turned their 35-24 halftime advantage into a 48-24 bulge.
Despite the balanced attack, the Bears got good numbers out of several players, particularly on the boards. Center Drew Richards, a veteran of 117 Missouri State games, had a career-best 14 rebounds, while starting forwards Deven Mitchell and Dale Lamberth and reserve forward Chris Cooks grabbed seven each. Backup center Dex Manswell had five rebounds, a block and three steals and was perfect in shooting with three field goals and four field goals for a career-best 10 points. Shane Laurie also scored 10 and Mitchell led Missouri State scoring with 16 points.
    Kavon Lacey led Evansville scoring with 13 points.
    The Bears, finishing in the second division of the regular season league standings for only the third time in 18 seasons in the Valley. Missouri State’s current win streak matches the four-game string the Bears put together in non-conference play Nov. 16-25, 2007. The last time the Bears were two games above the .500 mark was Jan. 15 when the team was 10-8.
