SPRINGFIELD – Gaige Prim posted a game-high 23 points, and Donovan Clay racked up 11 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists on his birthday to help lift Missouri State (16-7, 7-3 MVC) to a 72-58 win over visiting Evansville here Saturday.It was Clay’s second double-double as a Bear and the fifth of his career, while Prim’s output marked his best offensive outing since December 1.Evansville (5-15, 1-8) got 18 points from Jawaun Newton and 17 from Shamar Givance to lead the visitors.The Bears overcame a 31-percent shooting effort in the first half to lead 28-21 at the break behind 9 points from Isiaih Mosley and 12 points in the paint by the home side. After a floater by Givance made it a five-point game just before the under-four media timeout, the Bears went on a 6-2 run behind Prim, Mosley and Lu’Cye Patterson to take their biggest lead of the opening half, 28-19, before UE scored the final bucket of the period.MoState pushed ahead by 10 on two occasions early in the second half, both on buckets by Clay, and seemed to have things under control after Mosley splashed home a 3-pointer and scored a layup to make it a 38-29 game with 15:52 left to go.But the Purple Aces came out of the timeout with their best surge of the evening, reeling off 13 unanswered points over a four-minute stretch to take a 42-38 lead with 11:48 remaining.That’s when Missouri State turned to Prim to save the day. The All-MVC first-teamer scored the Bears’ next nine points to return the lead to the home side.Then, just after the nine-minute mark, Missouri State put the game on ice, going on a 13-0 run of its own in the span of less than three-and-a-half minutes. MSU got buckets from Clay, Prim and Patterson along with a 3-pointer from Isaac Haney and four critical free throws from Prim and Patterson to make it a 60-47 contest.Missouri State would eventually lead by as many as 16 on a 3-pointer from Ja’Monta Black in the final two minutes of the contest and finished the evening with a 25-11 scoring stretch over the final nine minutes.The Bears matched a season-low 39.7 percent from the field (23-of-58), but turned the ball over just five times and out-rebounded the Aces by a 42-34 margin. In fact, UE had just three offensive rebounds and turned in no second-chance points.MSU was also 5-of-19 (.263) from long range and 21-of-29 (.724) at the line with 8 steals, 16 second-chance points and 28 points in the paint.UE finished 22-for-56 (.393) overall, 5-for-22 (.227) from downtown and 9-of-10 (.900) at the line with 10 turnovers. Preston Phillips had a game-high 12 rebounds for the visitors.With the win, Missouri State captured its 16th win before the start of February, a milestone the program has not achieved since the 2010-11 MVC championship season.The Bears return to the road Wednesday at Southern Illinois at 8 p.m. (MVC TV Network) before a return game against league-leading Loyola on Sunday, Feb. 6 at 1 p.m.
