St. Louis, MO- When Valparaiso University hosted Missouri State in Indiana on January 15th, the Bears had their way with the Beacons and picked up a 17 point win on the road.
Less than a month later, when the teams met again in Missouri, the Bears delivered a similar beatdown, this time picking on the Beacons by 18 points. As fate would have it, the two squads would meet again in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament less than a month later once again, and simple math would predict that the Bears were likely to take this one by 19. Vegas, however, wasn’t so bullish, and they only had the Bears favored by 10. Vegas, sometimes, has a funny way of being right.
The two-seed Missouri State Bears advanced to the semifinal in the Missouri Valley basketball conference tournament Friday night, defeating the Valparaiso Beacons by a final score of 67-58. It wasn’t exactly ten points, but it was as close as it comes.
Really, this game was a lot closer than the final score suggests. Valparaiso hung tough with the Bears throughout the entirety of the game, and for the vast majority of the game they were within striking distance of tying the game up. Like an awkward high schooler at the senior Prom with a pretty girl, however, they just weren’t ever able to make a move, and Missouri State was able to coast out the second half on two and three score leads until the clock struck zero.
MSU’s Donovan Clay was the story of the first half, scoring 17 of the Bears’ 35 points on 86% shooting. In the second half, however, he was a complete nonfactor, recording zero points on zero for three shooting and just one lone assist. When the Bears couldn’t score, however, the Beacons of Valparaiso managed to score even less, producing just 30 points on 32% shooting from the team. Forward Thomas Kithier was one of three Beacons in double digits on the night, recording a team-high 17 on 67% shooting. Missouri State, in contrast, had two players with at least 17, the aforementioned Clay and Columbia, Missouri native Isiaih Mosley, and a third with 16, senior forward Gaige Prim.
The Bears will go on to the semifinal round and face the winner of the tournament’s final game of the night, Drake-Southern Illinois. The semifinal will take place on Saturday, March 5th at 5 p.m. CT.