ST. LOUIS – Missouri State got 18 points and 4 assists from Isiaih Mosley, while Gaige Prim added 16 points and 17 rebounds to help lift the Bears to a 67-58 win over Valparaiso here Friday in the State Farm MVC Tournament quarterfinals.
The second-seeded Bears (22-9) also got 17 points from Donovan Clay, all in the first half, to spark MSU to the third win this season over his former squad.
MoState was also solid on the defensive end, holding the Beacons (14-18) to 36.1 percent shooting from the field and just 16.7 percent from long range, while forcing 10 turnovers.
Thomas Kithier led No. 7-seeded Valpo with 17 points, while Sheldon Edwards scored 10 off the bench for the Beacons.
After the Bears led by seven at the intermission, Mosley and Lu’Cye Patterson scored quickly to push the maroon squad up by double figures for the first time, 39-29, and force a Valparaiso timeout just 45 seconds into the second half.
Valparaiso used a Kobe King-led 6-0 run to get back within 43-39 at the under-16 media timeout but Prim and Mosley had an answer for the Bears, reeling off seven straight points to push the MSU back ahead by 11 at the 13-minute mark. Before the midway point in the final stanza, the Bears stretched their lead out to 14 with Jaylen Minnett’s triple off the glass making it a 57-43 game.
The Beacons made their final push of the night right after the under-eight timeout, coming out with two buckets by Kithier as part of an 8-0 outburst to shrink Missouri State’s advantage to 62-56 with 4:36 to play.
But Patterson then had one of the biggest buckets of the night on a needle-threading pass from Prim to switch the momentum back to the Bears. Patterson had another big bucket with less than two minutes to go to put the game on ice with a three-point play that gave MoState a 67-58 lead.
The Bears would shut down the Beacons on their last four possessions and win it by that same nine-point margin to send MoState to the semifinals for the third straight season.
The Bears were 27-of-61 (.443) overall, 5-for-15 (.333) from long range and 8-of-9 (.889) from the foul line with just eight turnovers. Mosley snagged three of the Bears six steals on the evening. The Bears got 10 second-chance points off five key offensive rebounds – four by Prim.
Prim’s 17 rebounds marked the third-highest total by a Missouri State player at Arch Madness.
Valpo was 22-of-61 overall, 4-of-24 from 3-point range and 10-for-12 (.833) at the line with a 38-36 rebounding margin.
In the first half, the Bears shot 47 percent and got 17 points from Clay who made 6-of-7 shots and a pair of 3-pointers. Prim helped out with 8 rebounds and 7 points to give the No. 2 seed a 35-28 lead at the midway point.
Valparaiso got seven points in the first two-and-a-half minutes from Kithier to give the Beacons a 7-5 advantage early. That lead swelled to four on a bucket by Ben Krikke before Clay and Mosley heated up, leading a 13-4 Bears run over the next six minutes. Missouri State would lead by as many as nine in the opening stanza behind a traditional 3-point play from Clay with 2:56 to go before the half.
The Bears advance to Saturday’s semifinal round for the third straight season. MoState will take on the winner of the Drake-Southern Illinois game at 5 p.m. on CBS Sports Network in the second semifinal.
