SPRINGFIELD – Led by 21 points from Donovan Clay and 20 from Bryan Trimble Jr., Missouri State led wire to wire and turned back visiting Indiana State, 64-62, here Sunday.
The visiting Sycamores (13-6, 6-2 MVC) came into the game with a comfortable lead in The Valley standings and left town locked into a three-way tie for the league lead with Belmont and Southern Illinois.
The Bears (9-9, 5-3) are now locked into a five-way tie for fourth, just a game behind the conference leaders.
In his longest appearance of the season, Trimble saw 33 minutes off the bench and went 5-of-10 from 3-point range and a perfect 5-for-5 at the line to give MSU a needed offensive boost. On the inside, Clay and Dalen Ridgnal showed up strong, with Clay coming up one point shy of a career high and finishing 7-of-15 from the field with a pair of threes. Ridgnal narrowly missed a double-double with 9 points and 10 rebounds, while securing a key late-game block.
After leading by four at the midway point, the Bears came out strong in the second half, getting back-to-back buckets from Kendle Moore ahead of a triple from Trimble Jr., and a traditional 3-point play from Clay. Before the under-12 timeout, the Bears had extended their lead to 47-37.
From there, Trimble splashed home his fifth trey of the night with just under 11 minutes to go, and Clay’s two free throws at the 10:26 mark gave MoState its largest lead of the game at 52-39.
But the experienced Sycamores responded with a 13-4 run over the next seven minutes and turned to Cameron Henry and Courvoisier McCauley to make it a 56-52 game with 3:23 remaining.
But coming out of the final media timeout, Jonathan Mogbo’s putback off a Ridgnal miss and Clay’s layup a minute later gave MSU an eight-point cushion with a minute-and-a-half to play.
Down the stretch, ISU got a second-chance 3-pointer from Henry, a short hook shot by Robbie Avila and a layup by Cooper Neese to make it a 60-59 game. But when the Bears finally got to the foul line with 18.3 seconds to go, Trimble gave MSU a 3-point lead with two foul shots, and later Ridgnal made it 64-59 with 4.9 left to put the game out of reach.
Neese’s desperation three from half court splashed home to make the final margin two points.
Henry led ISU with 17 points and 5 rebounds, while McCauley scored 15.
MSU shot a season-best 94.1 percent from the foul line, making 16-of-17, while going 20-of-52 (.385) from the field and 8-for-22 (.364) from distance. The Bears out-rebounded the Sycamores by a 32-26 margin and registered 24 bench points.
Indiana State was 24-of-49 (.490) overall, 6-of-23 (.261) from downtown and 8-of-14 (.571) at the line with 11 turnovers.
Clay and Trimble each scored a dozen points in the first half with the Bears shooting an even 50 percent from the field. Trimble’s second three of the half with 13:09 to go gave MSU a 21-11 advantage, their largest of the half. The Sycamores trimmed their deficit to 23-22 with eight minutes left, but a bucket by Clay and another triple from Trimble gave the home club some needed breathing room en route to a 35-31 halftime lead.
The Bears return to the road Wednesday at Drake (7 p.m.) before returning to Great Southern Bank Arena on Saturday to battle Valley rival Southern Illinois at 3 p.m.
