CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Missouri State (4-0) held off a second-half surge from Northern Iowa and got a career-high 26 points from Isiaih Mosley to turn back the Panthers here Sunday, 79-59, in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both squads.
Mosley was 12-of-15 from the field and posted 22 points in the second half to help him match his career scoring best, a mark he also achieved six days earlier against Little Rock.
The Bears also got 16 points from Gaige Prim, 13 from Ja’Monta Black and 11 from Jared Ridder while shooting 51.6 percent (33-of-64) from the field. Prim also snagged a team-high 9 rebounds and tied a school record with 7 blocked shots to become the first Bear since Ricky Johnson in 1983 to achieve that feat.
The winning margin was the largest ever for the Bears in Cedar Falls against the Panthers (1-5), in a series that dates to 1983. The win also snapped UNI’s 17-game winning streak at McLeod Center.
In the early going, the Bears took less than five minutes to go ahead by double figures, with Black making it 15-5 on a pair of free throws – MSU’s only charity shots of the game — at the 15:32 mark. UNI would use a 10-2 run later in the half to close its gap to 30-25. But MSU responded with back-to-back triples from Keaton Hervey and Ridder ahead of a hook shot from Prim to take their biggest lead of the opening period, 38-25, just ahead of the two-minute mark.
In the second half, Prim and Mosley kick started the Bears scoring with quick buckets in the opening minute to give the Bears a 46-32 advantage in what would be their largest lead until the final three minutes of the contest.
Just two minutes later, Northern Iowa embarked on its biggest run of the game, getting a dunk by Nate Heise and back-to back layups from Austin Phyfe to get it to 48-40. Mosley answered with a triple for the Bears to push the visitors ahead by 11, but the Panthers used an 11-0 surge over the next four-and-a-half minutes to knot the score, 51-51 at the 10:29 mark.
Just when it seemed UNI had all the momentum, it was Missouri State that answered the bell. Ridder sparked a quick 8-0 outburst with a trey and then a leaner off the glass before Black scored a trey to make it 59-51. UNI got a layup from Tywhon Pickford a minute later to make it a six-point game at the 7:48 mark, but the home side would never get any closer.
Missouri State came out of the under-eight media timeout with a critical 13-2 run in which Mosley scored 11 points and sealed the deal with a dunk to make it 72-55 with just over three minutes to play.
UNI was led by Trae Berhow who scored 18 points, while Phyfe grabbed 8 rebounds. The Panthers finished 22-of-67 (.328) from the field, 4-of-20 (.200) from bonus range and 11-of-16 (.689) at the foul line.
In addition to shooting 51.6 percent from the field – the team’s fourth straight 50-percent shooting effort — the Bears made 11-of-25 (.440) from long distance and both free throws it attempted with a 43-37 rebounding advantage.
