Missouri State basketball couldn't stop West Virginia in second half in opening night loss
West Virginia went from making four shots in the first half to making four in fewer than three minutes in the second to rally and beat Missouri State in Monday night's season opener.
Missouri State (0-1) looked destined to beat the short-handed Mountaineers (1-0) through the first 20 minutes but the second half was a completely different story in a 67-59 defeat in Morgantown, West Virginia, to open the season.
Leading by six at the break, the Bears held the Mountaineers, who were down three potential starters due to injury, eligibility reasons or suspension, to 4 of 32 shooting in the first half. MSU closed the first half on a 26-9 run with WVU not hitting a shot from the field in the final 14:07 and missing its final 21 attempts.
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The Mountaineers couldn't be held down, despite playing with a thin bench, as it took the lead back from the Bears in fewer than three-and-a-half minutes to start the second half. Seth Wilson, a junior guard, scored five points over the stretch.
West Virginia led by as many as 11 with 5:45 left in the game but the Bears came back and made it a game late. A quick 8-0 run over a 2:36 span saw MSU bring it within three with 2:19 left.
Moore's fifth 3 of the night gave him 24 points and cut WVU's lead to 61-59 with 41.1 seconds to go. Those were his final points of the night as the Bears failed to get stops and they couldn't get buckets to fall as the late rally fell short.
MSU finished the game 23 of 65 from the field and 9 of 29 from deep. Alston Mason was the Bears' second-leading scorer with 15 points. No other Bear scored more than seven.
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WVU shot 58.1% from the field in the second half. It outrebounded the Bears by six and ended up outscoring MSU in the paint by six after the Bears outscored the Mountaineers by 14 under the basket in the first half.
Missouri State's drought over Power 5 opponents will last another year unless it meets one in a postseason tournament. The Bears haven't beaten a Power 5 team since 2015 when it made a furious comeback to win at Oklahoma State.
The Bears are off until Nov. 13 when they host Oral Roberts at 7 p.m. at Great Southern Bank Arena.
Lady Bears hold on for opening night win
The Lady Bears looked like they were going to cruise to an opening night win after taking a commanding 17-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. Little Rock came back and made it a game but MSU held on to start the year 1-0.
A 52-47 win for the Lady Bears saw them hold on after the Trojans cut MSU's lead to one with 1:03 left. The Lady Bears shut them out over the final minute while hitting their four foul shots to escape.
Little Rock never held a lead after trailing 10-0 within the first five minutes of the game.
Missouri State shot 37% from the floor with newcomer Lacy Stokes leading the way with 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting. Freshman Kyrah Daniels added 10 points with no one else scoring more than six. The Lady Bears turned the ball over 20 times.
The Lady Bears will stay on the road when they head to Saint Louis on Nov. 15.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball falls to West Virginia on opening night
