Trees still stand; basketball Bears scare Indiana State but fall at the finish

Missouri State fought the league’s best team to the wire, but couldn’t close the deal. It was a gallant effort, for sure, but as Coach Dana Ford accurately pointed out, they don’t give rewards for trying hard.

“The issue is, you want to win, winnable games,” Ford said on Saturday, Feb. 10 after Missouri Valley Conference leader Indiana State escaped Great Southern Bank Arena with a 73-71 victory over the Bears.

“Even the other night at Northern Iowa, we battled,” Ford said. “But we’re not concentrating on battling right now. Once we get into a position to win, we’ve got to make the plays down the stretch to win these games.”

Missouri State (14-11 overall, 6-8 Missouri Valley) trailed 69-68 after Cesare Edwards’ layup with 3:22 remaining. The Bears then had four straight scoreless possessions, including Alston Mason’s open 3-pointer with 45 seconds left that would have tied it.

The ball spun around the rim and fell off.

“I felt that shot was going in,” Mason said. “Unfortunately it didn’t. Sometimes, it’s just not your night. I know our guys are going to keep working and get back on it next game.”

Sycamores walk tall in the last minute

Isaiah Swope’s jumper with 20.8 seconds left gave the Sycamores a five-point lead. Missouri State’s Matthew Lee had a free throw with 16 seconds remaining and a layup at the buzzer to leave the Bears — who lost to Indiana State last month by 22 on the road — just short.

“The type of team we’re capable of being, we kind of saw it out there, going against the No. 1 team and how close the game was the whole way,” said Mason, who led all scorers with 26 points. “The guys we have, the talent we have, it’s all about executing down the stretch and making those last plays.”

Indiana State, likely to enter the next Associated Press top 25 for the first time since Larry Bird played there in 1979, improved to 21-3 overall and 13-1 in the Valley after its ninth straight victory. Ryan Conwell scored 24 to lead the way and Swope added 19.

Mason scored nine straight for the Bears to give them a 58-57 lead midway through the second half. It was reminiscent of the Drake game on Jan. 24 when Mason practically carried Missouri State to victory with 36 points.

But unlike in that game, Mason did not score again. Perhaps the illness he woke up with on game-day morning — headache, sweating, ticklish throat — caused him to wear down. Or maybe it was Indiana State’s switch to a zone defense, after Mason had 13 of the Bears’ first 22 second-half points.

“Their adjustment, to go zone, kind of stalled our aggressiveness,” Mason said. “It took us out of it. That was a great adjustment by their coach. That is something you can learn from. We kind of got lackluster and weren’t attacking the paint and making the right reads after that.

“We weren’t attacking the rim the way we were, making the right play and getting the ball to the right guys in the right areas.”

Bears ordering up more Mayo

After the Bears led 48-43 early in the second half, neither team led by more than three until Swope’s late jumper.

Ford said Mason and Chance Moore both were battling illness. Moore was able to play, after injuring his ankle in Wednesday’s loss at Northern Iowa, but Ford said he wasn’t himself due to dehydration and barely played in the second half.

A bigger loss was guard Damien Mayo Jr., who left the game with 8:51 remaining and the Bears leading 58-57. Mayo re-aggravated a knee contusion and did not return. The 6-foot-2 guard had 11 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes, often mixing it up near the basket against bigger opponents.

Ford pointed out that the Bears were a plus-9 with Mayo on the floor, meaning they outscored the Sycamores by nine points during his minutes. That was the best total for anyone, on either team.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to keep him in the game,” Ford said of Mayo, whose all-out effort sometimes leads to bruises. His dive for a loose ball resulted in his latest mishap.

“Just making some of those extra-effort plays … when he is on the floor for us, we’re typically pretty good,” Ford said.

Crossed over into the zone

Missouri State played various formations of zone defense throughout in an effort to slow Indiana State’s offense, which leads the Valley in scoring average (86.1) and 3-point percentage (.398).

Indiana State made 12 of 40 3-pointers after missing its first six. The Bears made 4 of 20 3-pointers.

“Everyone else has played them man-to-man,” Ford said. “That doesn’t work, so we tried to zone and it worked. But we’ve got to score. We talked to our guys and you’ve got to score at least 75 to beat them.

“We probably could have held them in the 60s, when you go back and look at some of the mistakes we made. But they’re really good offensively. You probably can’t guard them man to man unless you’re bigger, faster, stronger at every position. Nobody in the Valley is.”

Indiana State’s 6-10 center Robbie Avila, a candidate for Valley Player of the Year, was held to 10 points and six rebounds.

“They can shoot, they’re aggressive, they have guards that can shoot, drive and pass. And they’re versatile,” Mason said of the Sycamores. “Being able to be in the zone and to mix it up and slow them down the best way we can, I thought we did a really good job of that.”

A need to sharpen the saws

The two-loss week came after four straight wins and put a dent in the Bears’ momentum. It also leaves them probably needing to win their final six regular-season games to earn a top-four seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and the all-important first-round bye.

Missouri State goes Wednesday, Feb. 14 to Murray State, a team it lost to by 24 at home in January before a home game on Feb. 17 against Valparaiso.

“I don't have a doubt that this group will be right back at it on Monday and Tuesday for wherever we go (Murray State) on Wednesday and give ourselves an opportunity to win,” Ford said. “But once we get in these positions to win, we've got to make these plays down the stretch.”