Shortly after Missouri State dispatched Lindenwood 79-57 on Tuesday night, Alston Mason was ready to quickly turn the page and look ahead to one final pre-Christmas assignment.
Excluding tournament play at a neutral site, the Bears have yet to win on the road this season, having given away double-digit leads in three of their four losses. Included is a painful one-point defeat in their previous game at Tulsa, an outcome that hit the Bears hard.
“We have to stay in attack mode,” Mason said, of what needs to happen if Missouri State is to solve the road woes two times zones away, on Saturday at St. Mary’s. “Sometimes, we let off the gas pedal, even though we’re up 15 or 20 points. It comes back to bite us.”
The Bears (8-4) did all the biting as they returned to Great Southern Bank Arena on Dec. 19 as Mason had a career-high 34 points to go with seven assists and only one turnover in 35 minutes against the state’s newest Division I program. N.J. Benson had 17 points and 12 rebounds, his third double-double of the season.
For Mason, this one was a bit personal after the loss at Tulsa in which he shouldered much of the blame. Coach Dana Ford pointed out that it was a shared failure to finish, but Mason missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with seven seconds remaining and his team leading by two.
“I was very disappointed in myself the way I came out, the way we executed and down the stretch missing that free throw,” Mason said.
“Giving up a game like that can really make or break a team. For us, it was important to bounce back and make sure we don’t stay on that game. It was important to be aggressive and get a win.”
As the Bears played without starting point guard Matthew Lee for a third straight game as he rests a wrist injury, Mason proved a worthy scorer and distributor against the outmanned Lions (5-7).
Win helps turn page after loss to Tulsa
“As hard as a loss as it was, you don’t want to turn it into two,” Ford said of coming off the Tulsa game. “You want to put it behind you. Hopefully we learned a good, hard lesson. We won’t know that until we get into that situation again.
“Alston was really turned up. When we’re turned up, we’re pretty good. He’s a really good player and a competitor. I’m sure he’s probably thinking that he is — I wouldn’t say responsible — but he could have saved us (at Tulsa). I’m sure that kind of burns him a little bit. But he’s been good all year.”
The Bears missed their first four shots against Lindenwood and turned the ball over twice in falling behind 6-0 four minutes into action. The sluggish start was perhaps a bit of a hangover from the previous game, but the slumber was brief.
“We had to get our mojo back,” Ford said. “That loss took some stuff out of us. It should have. I think it just took us a little bit to wake up and realize that we were playing another game. We did it pretty quick.”
Missouri State reeled off the next seven and took the lead on Chance Moore’s fast-break dunk off a Lindenwood turnover. Mason had 10 points, making a pair of 3-pointers, as the Bears took command at 18-8 midway through the half.
Defense led way vs. Lindenwood
Mason finished with 17 first-half points — outsourcing the entire Lindenwood team — as the Bears led 34-16 at the break while holding the Lions to 21-percent shooting.
“Being in attack mode and staying aggressive, I think that is a big deal for me,” Mason said. “As long as I can stay aggressive and keep putting pressure on the defense, it puts our team in a good position.”
The Bears pushed the lead to 43-18 early in the second half and were in cruise control. Lindenwood cut the margin to 52-40 just under the 10-minute mark before Missouri State responded with another burst led by Mason, grabbing their biggest lead of the night at 73-47 with 3:32 to play.
As Mason made his impact in many ways, Benson was a force in the paint. He made 8 of 11 shots from the field, with three dunks, and also blocked two shots.
“We have guys who can score in the right situations when the right people are out there doing the right things,” Ford said. “A lot of that is led by Alston. He’s the one guy who can do that with anybody out there. Some of our other guys probably need Matt to really get them going.
“N.J. kind of got himself going tonight. He’s capable,” Ford said. “Donny (Donovan Clay) didn’t score tonight, but his defense was great and like I keep saying, our sum is better than our parts. When it all works together, then we have really good scoring spurts. We need a little more consistency offensively.”
Defensively the Bears held Lindenwood to 32-percent field-goal shooting. The Lions’ top two scorers, Darius Beane and Keenon Cole, were shut out in the first half and finished with a combined 16 points. They came in averaging 32 as a duo.
Donovan Clay took care of the assignment on Cole with Damien Mayo Jr. the primary defender on Beane.
“We try to game plan the top three scorers, but for this game it was definitely the top two,” Ford said. “We had Donny and Mayo and any time they can match up defensively, typically we get that part done. When we don’t do that, we haven’t won.
“The last game, (Tulsa’s) leading scorer got 24. Tonight, we did a great job on their two best players. That’s a game-plan goal of ours, to take away their A and B options.”
Ford said the Bears will need a big dose of defensive excellence at St. Mary’s, a San Francisco Bay-area team that began the season in the Top 25 and is favored over Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. St. Mary’s is 7-5 after beating Middle Tennessee — a team the Bears lost to on the road in overtime — 71-34 on Tuesday night for its fourth straight win.
“What we need to try to do is right a few of these wrongs we’ve had in the non-league, with an opportunity against a good team,” Ford said. “As of today it’s a Quad 2 (NET ratings) opponent, but by the end of the year it will be a Quad 1.
“We need to continue to defend and rebound. They’re big and physical and that’s what we’ve struggled with. We’ll have to really guard ‘em because it’s gonna be a slugfest. We have to have our minds right for a slugfest and stay close enough where we have a chance to win it when it’s winning time.”
Missouri State stars
Following Bears’ home games, Lyndal Scranton will recognize his top three stars of the game. For the 79-57 victory over Lindenwood:
*** Junior guard Alston Mason was sensational with 34 points (most by an MSU player since Isaiah Mosley had 40 at Bradley on Jan. 22, 2022) to go with 7 assists, 5 rebounds and a lone turnover in 35 minutes. Mason’s previous scoring high was 28, twice this season.
** Sophomore forward N.J. Benson was a difference-maker inside with 17 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
* Junior forward Chance Moore didn’t have his best offensive night, with nine points, but came away with a career-high 15 rebounds.
