SPRINGFIELD – Alize Johnson scored 24 points and snagged 20 of his team’s 51 rebounds to help Missouri State (13-3, 3-0 MVC) to a 62-55 win over visiting Northern Iowa (8-7, 0-3) here Thursday in Missouri Valley Conference play.
It was Johnson’s second 20-20 game of the season and his 10th double-double.
Missouri State, which is off to a 3-0 start in Valley play for the first time since 2010-11, also got 13 points off the bench from J.T. Miller and 9 points from Jarrid Rhodes.
UNI got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Tywhon Pickford, while Klint Carlson posted 16 points as the Panthers dropped their fifth straight.
The Bears added to their nine-point halftime lead with a 9-0 run early in the second half. The two-minute outburst included a drive to the rack by Ryan Kreklow, a steal and layup by Johnson, a trey by Rhodes and an offensive rebound and put-back by Johnson that put MSU up by 17 with just over 14 minutes to play.
Miller scored six of MSU’s eight points in a five-minute stretch from there, and Johnson’s two free throws with 6:11 remaining gave the Bears their biggest lead of the night, 55-36.
The next three minutes belonged to UNI, which reeled off seven unanswered points before Johnson quieted the Panther rally with a short jumper. Bennett Koch’s bucket with 2:33 to play made it a 57-45 contest with the visitors failing to surrender late in the contest.
Over the next two minutes, Missouri State missed six consecutive free throws to open the door for UNI which climbed back within 57-53 on a triple by Carlson with 27 seconds to go.
But MSU’s starters showed composure when it counted. Johnson, Jarred Dixon and Kreklow teamed up to ice the Bears’ final five charity shots of the night and secure the seven-point win.
“If you rebound like that and defend like that – even if we miss shots – all we have to do is be solid with the ball,” said MSU head coach Paul Lusk. “We didn’t do that late in the game and got casual with the ball. But we had some guys step up with some solid defensive plays late, and then we closed it out. But (UNI) is a championship-caliber team. They’re not going anywhere.”
The Bears out-rebounded UNI by a convincing 51-26 margin, including 17 MSU caroms on the offensive end. MSU also held the Panthers to just seven field goals in the first half and four 3-pointers on the night.
MSU finished 20-of-54 (.370) from the field and 4-of-16 (.250) from long distance with a .667 (18-of-27) free throw effort. The Bears also turned the ball over 13 times on the night.
For its part, UNI made a game of it late with behind seniors Carlson and Koch who accounted for 11 combined points in the final five minutes. The Panthers finished 20-of-53 from the field, 4-of-18 from three and 11-of-19 at the stripe with just four offensive rebounds and six turnovers.
The Bears were slow out of the gates to start the night, making just one of their first 10 shots and fell behind 9-4 early. A transition basket by Alize Johnson started MSU’s comeback, and his layup with 5:48 to go in the opening half gave the Bears their first lead since the opening minute and started a 15-3 run over the next three-and-a-half minutes for the home club.
Northern Iowa went six minutes without a field goal from there as MSU stepped up its defensive intensity and forced the Panthers to just 2-of-9 in the last nine minutes of the stanza.
Johnson ended the first half with his double-double already secured, taking 11 points and 13 boards into the intermission.
There have been just five 20-20 games in Division I this season – Johnson’s two, along with Washington’s Noah Dickerson, Baylor’s Jo Lual-Acuil and Duke’s Marvin Bagley.
Missouri State begins a two-game Valley road swing Sunday at Illinois State (8-7, 2-1 MVC), a nationally-televised game on CBS Sports Network that tips at 1 p.m. After a road game at Evansville on Jan. 10, the Bears return home on Jan. 14 to take on Indiana State at 2 p.m.
