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SPRINGFIELD – Led by 20 points and 10 rebounds from junior Keandre Cook, Missouri State turned back visiting Robert Morris, 74-60, here Friday in the preliminary round of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.
 
Cook led four Bears in double figures with Josh Webster adding 14 points and teammates Jarred Dixon and Szymon Wojcik posting 12 apiece to help MSU improve to 2-0 on the young season.
 
RMU (0-2) was led by Charles Bain with a game-high 25 points.
 
After leading by four points at the break, Missouri State held off an early second-half run by the Colonials that saw Jon Williams drain three 3-pointers in the span of less than two minutes and make it a 39-38 game.
 
But the Bears were resilient under fire and posted the game's next eight points, including four by Webster. By the 10-minute mark, Webster had engineered eight of 10 Missouri State points in a key five-minute stretch to give the home side its first double-figure advantage, 51-40.
 
The more-experienced visitors never surrendered, trimming MSU's lead to 60-54 on a pair of Bain free throws with 3:27 left in the contest. But Cook's biggest basket of the game came moments later on a trey from the left side to extend the Bears' lead to nine.
 
A dunk by Wojcik with just over a minute to play pushed Coach Dana Ford's squad ahead by double-figures once again, 70-60, and the Bears delighted the JQH Arena crowd of 5,038 with game-securing scores in the final minute by Dixon and Webster.
 
Cook's double-double came in just his second Division I contest, as he converted 6-of-10 shots overall and 4-of-6 from long range, accounting for all but one of Missouri State's five triples on the evening.
 
Robert Morris, which committed 20 turnovers, also got 11 points from Williams and 10 rebounds from Koby Thomas.
 
The Bears finished 23-of-49 (.469) from the field and collected 34 points in the paint and 27 points off the Colonials' ample mishaps.
 
In the first half, the Bears used a 9-0 run to overcome a narrow deficit and pulled ahead 14-7 on a layup by Cook at the 12-minute mark. Cook's 3-pointer 11 minutes into the half gave the Bears a 21-13 advantage to match their biggest of the stanza, before he left the game with his third foul.
 
With two minutes to go in the half, a transition dunk by Szymon Wojcik gave MSU a 33-25 advantage before RMU ended the half on a 4-0 run to make it 33-29 at the break.
 
 
 
The Bears conclude their three-game home stand Sunday afternoon when they entertain Stetson (1-0) at 3 p.m. in another preliminary-round game of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. Tickets for the game are available at MissouriStateBears.com or at the Old Missouri Bank Box Office at JQH Arena, (417) 836-7678, during regular box office hours.