Missouri State players often appeared to be running in quicksand, whether they were chasing loose balls or trying to latch onto rebounds. Normally reliable shooters couldn’t find a rhythm, let alone the bottom of the net.
It was a frustrating Wednesday night at Great Southern Bank Arena for the Bears, who fell 64-62 to Northern Iowa, their biggest Missouri Valley Conference nemesis over the last decade.
Nick Kramer’s open 3-pointer from the left corner, launched a tick ahead of the horn, was a bit long. Northern Iowa beat the Bears for the ninth time in 11 meetings in Coach Dana Ford’s six seasons and improved to 5-0 at GSB Arena during that period.
Missouri State's last three home-court losses to the Panthers have been by margins of one, three and two points. Ouch. Any momentum from a pre-Christmas road win at highly regarded St. Mary’s is gone.
“We just couldn’t come up with a big stop,” Ford said of the game’s final minutes, which saw the Panthers make plays and the Bears make mistakes.
Slippery Panthers escape all put-away tries
Missouri State (9-5 overall, 1-2 Missouri Valley Conference) fought an uphill battle all night, after falling behind by 13 just seven minutes into the game. To the Bears’ credit, they chipped away and took their first lead on Cesare Edwards’ 3-pointer with 8:13 remaining.
But Missouri State never could gain separation as there were seven lead changes the rest of the way. Every time it seemed the Bears were a defensive stop from grabbing the game by the throat, the Panthers escaped the chokehold.
Edwards practically carried the Bears on his back with a breakout offensive night, scoring a career-high 25 to go with eight rebounds. His jumper with 2:50 remaining put Missouri State in front 59-58.
Northern Iowa answered on the next possession as Bowen Born, at 5-foot-11 the shortest player on the floor, grabbed an air ball as three Bears watched and laid it in just as the shot clock was about to expire.
Matthew Lee, back in action for the Bears after missing four games with a wrist injury, missed a jumper. The Panthers, with rare fast break, found a wide-open Born in the corner that he fired home a 3-pointer.
Northern Iowa (7-7, 1-2) led by four with 1:36 remaining after a sequence that summed up Missouri State’s shortcomings on this night.
“They got a couple of 50/50 balls around the basket and laid it in,” Ford said. “We blew a defensive coverage and left Born open in the corner and he made us pay. Those two probably stick out in regards to the last four minutes.”
In the waning seconds
After burning their final timeout, the Bears turned it over. They were able to get a stop and Alston Mason’s 3-pointer with 35 seconds left pulled Missouri State within 63-62.
Forced to foul, the Bears sent Nate Heise to the line with 12 seconds remaining. Heise made one of two, setting the stage for a last chance to tie or win the game.
“We went over that in shoot-around (Wednesday afternoon), whether we had timeouts or no timeouts,” Ford said. “We set a high ball screen for Alston. That’s our best option because Alston can score from anywhere on the floor.”
Mason drove and the defense collapsed. He found Kramer, who had 10 points and two earlier 3-pointers, open.
“Nick was wide open,” Ford said, praising his team for executing in that situation. “That’s the best shot you can probably get. He was wide open.”
Lee, the lone Missouri State player appearing at the post-game news conference, said he felt good when the ball left Kramer’s hand.
”I have confidence. That could have been anybody on the team and I would have had full confidence,” Lee said.
UNI nabs its second chances
Ford wasn’t as pleased with the Bears’ defense, which allowed 44-percent field-goal shooting, or his team’s rebounding. The No. 1-ranked team in the conference in rebound margin, at plus-7.4, was outrebounded 37-29.
Missouri State had only three offensive rebounds — all late in the game — and was outscored 15-3 in second-chance points.
“Not just in that area, I don’t think we played our style of ball tonight,” Ford said. “We typically don’t get outrebounded like that and we typically don’t give up 44 percent from the floor. We just didn’t play our style of basketball.
“Any time you give up 15 second-chance (points) in a game in the 60s, you really put yourself in danger of losing. I just didn’t think we played the way we have been playing and are capable of playing. We’ll have to go watch it and figure out why.”
Born scored 21 and big man Jacob Hutson scored 19 for Northern Iowa. The 6-foot-11 Hutson also got N.J. Benson in foul trouble, with Benson getting only two points and two rebounds.
‘The dust will settle' on playing time
Ford was asked if having a fully healthy roster for the first time — at least until Damien Mayo Jr. left early in the second half with a possible concussion — would be an issue. The Bears have used seven players for primary minutes most of the way this season.
“Fitting Matt back in, I wouldn’t say it’s difficult, you just have to fit him back in,” Ford said. “Nick played tonight because when he got his opportunity, he played well so we gave him more opportunity. We’ll have to make a few adjustments with our rotation. You can’t play 10 guys. That’s a lot, but tonight we did and we needed 10 guys to get back in the game.
“The dust will settle on that. The guys that did play, some of them need to play a little better. I’m not sure any of our guys played well defensively, off the top of my head, other than Donny (Clay).
“Offensively, Cesare had a great game and we needed it. He really stepped up and he’s capable of that. He’s starting to get into a groove and find his role on the team and he’s taken full advantage of his opportunity.
“We all need to get better defensively, pretty fast.”
The Bears go back on the road to face Bradley at 3 p.m. Saturday with the next home game Jan. 10 against Murray State.
“We just have to get back to the drawing board and focus on our next game,” Lee said. “This game is over and we can’t go back and change anything. We’ll watch film and focus on getting a win at Bradley.”
Missouri State stars
Following Bears’ home games, Lyndal Scranton will recognize his top three stars of the game. From Wednesday night’s 64-62 loss to Northern Iowa:
*** Forward Cesare Edwards had a breakout offensive game with a career-high 25 points on 11-for-17 field-goal shooting. He also had a team-high eight rebounds.
** Freshman transfer Nick Kramer, who missed the first 10 games as he rehabbed offseason back surgery, scored 10 points - his first points in a Missouri State uniform.
* Raphe Ayres played only six first-half minutes, but did a lot of good things while in the game. He grabbed four rebounds and had a steal as the Bears had a plus-eight scoring advantage when he was on the floor.
