SPRINGFIELD – Ryan Kreklow scored a career-high 20 points, and Missouri State held off a late surge by visiting Colorado State to lead the Bears (6-2) to a 77-67 victory here Tuesday as part of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Conference Challenge series.
The Bears, who never trailed, also got 12 points from Reggie Scurry and 10 points and 8 rebounds from Obediah Church to help secure the win.
Prentiss Nixon tallied 20 points for Colorado State (3-4), which also got 14 points from Deion James and 13 from Che Bob. Bob notched a game-high 12 rebounds for the Rams.
The Bears jumped out to an 8-2 lead early and then extended their advantage to 20-8 at the midway point of the first half after back-to-back 3-pointers by Jarrid Rhodes and Kreklow.
Kreklow finished 3-of-6 from bonus distance on the night.
MSU kept the pressure on the visitors and used a 5-0 run that included a steal and layup by Jarred Dixon to lead 25-9. The Bears would match their biggest lead of the opening stanza – 16 points – five more times, including a buzzer-beating layup by Tanveer Bhullar just before the intermission.
Colorado State made things interesting with a 7-0 run to start the second half, but the Bears responded three minutes into the final period with a triple from Rhodes and a close-range bucket by Church to get the MSU advantage back to 14.
MSU’s lead grew to as many as 20 with 7:50 to play on a transition trey by Kreklow that followed a corner three by Ronnie Rousseau III moments earlier.
The Bears then went the next three minutes without a field goal while CSU chipped away. J.T. Miller’s jumper with 4:41 to play made it a 67-55 game to stop the bleeding, but the Rams answered with a quick 4-0 outburst to cut their deficit to eight.
With two minutes remaining, CSU scored on back-to-back dunks by Bob and James that made the score 69-63 with 1:47 to play, and when James kissed the glass with a short jumper at the 1:29 to go, it trimmed Missouri State’s advantage to 69-65.
But the final minute belonged to the home club. Rhodes, Kreklow and Dixon each contributed clutch free throws down the stretch as MSU converted 8-of-10 from the stripe and got a series of key defensive stops to put the double-figure win on ice.
MSU was out-rebounded for the first time this season, 41-36, but dominated the pine with 46 bench points to CSU’s 6. MSU’s junior class combined for 51 points from Kreklow, Church, Scurry and Dixon, to help cushion the scoring load with the club’s top point producer Alize Johnson held scoreless for the just the second time in his career.
The Bears held Colorado State to just 35.9 percent shooting (23-of-64) overall and 4-of-23 (.174) from long range. MSU also did a great job at the foul line, converting 23-of-29 (.793) from the stripe and 43.4 percent (23-of-53) overall.
