Boxscore
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- For the third straight game, the University of Evansville held the opposition below 55 points. This time, however, it wasn't enough. Missouri State played great defense itself, shutting down the Purple Aces in the final eight minutes and defeating Evansville 52-46 in the first round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Basketball Tournament here Thursday night.
The Bears (20-11) advance to Friday's quarterfinals against #2 Wichita State (23-8).
"Give Missouri State credit; they battled and they made a few more plays than we did late in the game," said Coach Marty Simmons. "But I'm very proud of our team. We battled, and even though we didn't get the result we were hoping for, it wasn't for lack of effort."
Added MVC Freshman of the Year Colt Ryan, "It was disappointing because we worked hard to get a lead in the second half, but we just couldn't hit shots when we needed them. But we came a long way since early in the season. We watched tape of our early games, and there's no comparison to the way we finished. We improved a lot. So we'll take a short break next week, and then get back at working hard toward next season."
Missouri State jumped out to a 17-8 lead, but most of the the final 10 minutes of the first half belonged to the Aces. Behind the shooting of Denver Holmes, the Aces outscored the Bears 13-2 to take a 21-19 lead. Holmes scored 11 of Evansville's 24 points in the opening 20 minutes.
Down two at halftime, Evansville outscored MSU 10-2 to begin the second half, taking a 34-28 lead on Ned Cox's three-pointer with 14 minutes to go. But right back came the Bears, who took a six-point lead of their own with less than six minutes left at 45-39 on Jermaine Mallett's layup. Two free throws by Holmes put the Aces up 46-45 with 3:22 remaining, but those were the final points of the season for Evansville. The Bears shut down the Aces' outside shooters, and Kyle Weems hit a pair of free throws with 3:01 left to put MSU ahead for good at 47-46. Neither team tallied a point until Adam Leonard hit his first three pointer of the game with 32 seconds remaining to put the Bears up 50-46. Two more missed shots by the Aces and a pair of free throws in the final seconds gave Missouri State its six-point advantage at the end. Holmes led the Aces (9-21) with 13 points.
Drake won Thursday's first game, 63-61 over Southern Illinois on a Josh Young fadeaway 15-footer with two seconds to go. Drake will play league champion Northern Iowa in Friday's first quarterfinal game at 12 noon. #4 Creighton plays #5 Bradley at 2:35. Missouri State winner plays #2 Wichita State at 6:05, and #3 Illinois State plays #6 Indiana State in the fourth and final game, at 8:35.
