Dec. 20, 2014 Final Stats
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SPRINGFIELD - Eastern Michigan (9-2) shot 51 percent from the field and withstood a late rally by Missouri State to hand the Bears their first home loss of the season here Saturday in a 77-65 Eagles win at JQH Arena.
Karrington Ward posted 18 points and a game-high 9 rebounds for EMU, while Raven Lee added 14 points. Lee connected on four 3-pointers, none bigger than his third one with 7:42 left that ended a 12-1 Bears' run and had the home club within 55-49 of the lead.
After back-to-back 3-pointers by Marcus Marshall and Gavin Thurman helped Missouri State (5-6) whittle a once-18-point deficit down to six, the Bears seemingly had a stop after a missed three by Jordan Price. But Ward came over an MSU defender for the offensive rebound and kicked it to Lee for the clutch trey which pushed the Eagles' lead back to nine.
Marshall, who scored all of his game-high 21 points in the second half, got the Bears back within seven on Missouri State's next possession with a pair of free throws. But Ward and Nazion Brandon led the visitors on an 8-2 outburst over the next minute to push Eastern's lead back to 13.
The Bears had one final rally in them around the three-minute mark after another Lee 3-pointer gave EMU a 69-55 advantage. Marshall converted a four-point play after his fourth trey of the night, and Camyn Boone logged a pair of free throws to make it 69-61 with 3:03 to go.
But after getting a rare Eagles' miss at the free throw line on their next possession, the Bears pushed the ball to Gavin Thurman whose short jumper in the lane was off its mark with about two-and-a-half minutes to go. The Bears had to foul, and the visitors converted six of their final eight charity shots to close out the win.
Missouri State failed to make another field goal after Marshall's 3-pointer and subsequent free throw at the 3:24 mark.
EMU, which led the nation in field goal percentage defense a year ago, held Missouri State to a season-low 31.3 percent effort from the field on 20-of-64 attempts. Meanwhile, the Eagles kept the pressure on the Bears with hot shooting on their end, knocking down 25-of-49 (.510) shots and 9-of-23 (.391) from outside the arc with two huge treys in the final eight minutes.
The Eagles were also 18-of-23 (.783) at the line and committed 13 turnovers.
Paul Lusk's Bears finished 7-of-26 (.269) from beyond the arc, and a season-best 18-of-19 (.947) at the foul line to mark MSU's fifth straight game converting 80 percent or more from the charity stripe. Missouri State also matched EMU on the boards with 35 and committed a season-low 6 turnovers.
Boone and Thurman also contributed 11 points for the home side with Boone snagging 7 boards. Dorrian Williams logged 8 assists with no turnovers.
In the first half, an 11-1 Eastern Michigan run over the last five minutes of the period gave the Eagles a 31-19 lead at the break.
MSU, which started 1-for-14 from the field, finished the half just 6-for-30 (.200) from the perimeter and 2-of-11 (.182) from long range.
After falling behind 5-0, the Bears got some momentum back on a pair of free throws by Chris Kendrix and a put back by Thurman to make it a 5-4 game. Later, after EMU pushed ahead 16-9, the Bears gained traction on a 3-pointer by Austin Ruder, a transition bucket by Thurman and a deep layup by Tyler McCullough to make it an 18-16 game with 6:49 to go.
But MSU would go without a field goal the rest of the half, missing six in a row before the break, while the Eagles mounted their best run of the game to climb ahead by a dozen at the midway point.
Missouri State, which fell to 3-1 at JQH Arena this season, suffered just its eighth double-digit home loss since the facility opened in 2008.
The Bears will try to snap a three-game skid on Monday at 7:05 p.m., when they host Oral Roberts in a rematch of a Dec. 15 loss to the Golden Eagles in Tulsa. Tickets for the non-conference finale are available now at MissouriStateBears.com or by calling the Missouri State Athletics Ticket Office in JQH Arena during regular box office hours at (417) 836-7678.
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