Dana Ford refuses to use the term “rock bottom” when discussing the abyss Missouri State’s basketball team tumbled into a few weeks ago.
“We like to call it ‘base camp,’ not necessarily rock bottom,” Ford said Saturday, Feb. 3, after the Bears' fourth straight victory, 87-80 over Belmont as they dominated over the final six minutes.
Ford said base camp is like planning an expedition to Mount Everest. First, second and third attempts aren’t always successful.
“You have to go up, come back down. Go up again, come back down. You have to kind of keep coming back down to the bottom, but the purpose is to eventually get to the top.
“It’s no different than our season. We’re trying to fight our way to the top, whatever that is for us. We’ve just had to come back down to base camp more times than maybe others this year.”
No player epitomizes base camp better than Chance Moore. The junior guard had his second straight excellent game after an awful stretch of shooting, hitting Belmont with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Alston Mason backed Moore with 22 with three other Bears also scoring 10 or more.
Bears are now 6-6 in the Valley
Add it up, and Missouri State’s winning streak has it back to even in the Missouri Valley Conference at 6-6 — still a long way from the peak — and 14-9 overall.
Hopefully the necessary trips to base camp are over for this season. Certainly for Moore, the confidence is rising after he went 9-for-12 from the field and made three of his five 3-point attempts.
With extra focus on defense and rebounding during a 10-for-51 shooting slump, Moore has come out the other side a better overall player now than he’s ever been.
“I feel like my defense has really taken steps forward and rebounding as well,” Moore said. “I’m just going to try to continue to get better.”
Teammate Damien Mayo Jr. called Moore “a great player who can stretch the floor, get downhill (drive the ball) and is a three-level scorer. He’s one of the best defenders on the team. When he was in a slump, we just tried to pick him up. We knew he was gonna get out of his slump and now he’s producing.”
Ford said a lot of credit belongs to Moore for the way he worked and grew those other aspects of his game, to where he’s no longer a one-dimensional jump shooter.
Moore’s steal and dunk tied the game at 65 after the Bears had lost the second-half lead. He followed with a 3-pointer a minute later to snap the tie and his offensive-rebound basket with 5:42 to go gave Missouri State the lead for good at 72-71.
“He’s a great kid. He just wasn’t shooting the basketball well, but he stopped putting his eggs into that basket and he started putting them into some other baskets,” Ford said. “Now he’s making shots and Chance is as talented a player as we have.
Moore's breakaway dunk set the stage
“He has grown. That breakaway dunk today, he should have one of those a half. He is the best athlete in the conference. It’s not even close, how fast he is, how quick he is and he can jump so high. Then his rebounding. I really feel it’s helped him become a better player.
“For Chance, like all of us in our lives, it’s about consistency and doing it day-in and day-out.”
Moore’s go-ahead basket launched a 10-0 run that put it away. Missouri State outscored Belmont 17-9 over the final six minutes, a stark contrast to the Bears’ last loss, on Jan. 20 against Illinois State when they scored one point over the final six minutes.
“Having Chance back is great and Alston is Alston,” Mayo said. “I feel like everybody can have their game on a given night. We have plenty of attacking threats. As a team, we’re well-balanced.
“When we have our heads on straight and we’re locked in, we all can produce and score.”
This also marked the third time during the four-game winning streak Missouri State has rallied from double-digit deficits. Ford said falling behind by so much needs to change, but overcoming that adversity is a positive sign.
‘Players have taken ownership,' Ford says
“Our players have taken ownership of the team through their actions,” Ford said. “That really helps. Number two, I feel like we understand what we’re capable of in regards to a basketball team. As the calendar continues to flip, your level of urgency starts to rise. That’s what we’re starting to see with our team.
“We have a lot of areas we continue to elevate and get better. Currently there’s a high level of ownership and that’s allowed them to be invested in the things you have to do to win.”
Missouri State scored the first seven points of the second half to zip past Belmont’s one-point halftime lead. Raphe Ayres’ 3-pointer got it rolling with N.J. Benson’s offensive follow and Donovan Clay’s jumper following.
The Bears still led 54-49, but were unable to sustain and Belmont reeled off a 9-0 run to go in front by four and it was a tussle from there until Missouri State grabbed the game by the throat down the stretch.
What a difference two weeks can make.
“What I’ve always known about our group is we have great kids and they’ve never stopped working hard,” Ford said. “We had a lot of guys not playing basketball well at the same time.
“In regards to what I’ve done, I’ve prayed a lot for our group. We just have to believe, keep our faith strong and believe. Other than praying, we’ve just gone about business as usual.”
Northern Iowa, Indiana State up next
A rugged week awaits starting with a trip to Northern Iowa on Wednesday, against the team that started the Bears’ miserable January with a 64-62 win at GSB Arena on Jan. 3. First-place Indiana State comes to town next Saturday.
Reaching the peak of the Valley standings is unrealistic, but the Bears are back in the hunt for the all-important top-four finish. Those teams get to avoid the MVC Tournament play-in rebound at “Arch Madness.”
“The beauty of what we do, there is so much basketball left,” Ford said. “It really is about February and March. I think some of our guys in the locker room now … we have had really good November-Decembers, really good December-Januarys and we’ve had some pretty good late-January and early Februarys.
“We’ve yet to have a really good late-February/early-March. I think our group is pretty focused.”
Missouri State stars
During Missouri State games he covers, Lyndal Scranton will recognize his top three stars of the game. From the 87-80 win over Belmont on Feb. 3:
*** Chance Moore came off the bench and had his second impact game. Moore hit the go-ahead basket with just under six minutes to go and had 23 points and 13 rebounds, his second-career double-double.
** Alston Mason scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. While he struggled from 3-point range, going 1 of 5, Mason converted six of nine two-pointers and made seven of nine free throws.
* Donovan Clay turned in his usual, solid overall performance with 15 points and seven rebounds. Clay is averaging 19 points and 6.7 rebounds over the last three games.
