Missouri State basketball takes step back after marquee win. What happened in loss to UNI.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — After a relentless effort to bring the Bears back from an early 13-point deficit, Missouri State basketball held a one-point lead with just over two minutes remaining.
Northern Iowa star Bowen Born drove down the lane and tossed the ball up and it hit nothing. The ball somehow landed between the Bears' Cesare Edwards, Donovan Clay and Alston Mason.
None of them grabbed the rebound.
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Born grabbed his board and laid it in to give the Panthers the lead. After a Matthew Lee shot came up short and UNI got the board, the Bears somehow left the Panthers' all-league guard alone in the corner.
Swish. A four-point lead and it became clear that the Bears' comeback efforts went for naught.
"They got a couple of 50-50 balls there around the basket and we blew a defensive coverage and left Born open in the corner and he made a big shot," sixth-year head coach Dana Ford said. "We just couldn't come up with a big stop."
The lack of big stops late was just part of the Bears' 64-62 loss to Northern Iowa on Wednesday night at Great Southern Bank Arena. The loss came 11 days after the Bears grabbed one of their best wins of the Ford era with a road win at Saint Mary's.
Each time the Bears seemingly had a chance in the second half to take control, the Panthers had a response. The lack of stops, combined with the Bears' lack of production from its starters and inability to rebound, might have even left a bad taste in the fanbases' mouths amid the resumption of Missouri Valley Conference play.
It would have been better if Nick Kramer hit a wide-open game-winning 3 at the buzzer but it wasn't meant to be.
"We had plenty of times to come back and win," Ford said. "We'll watch the tape, evaluate what went wrong and where we need to do some things better."
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Uncharacteristically, the Bears were outrebounded 37-29, including an 11-3 difference on the offensive boards. That turned into a 15-3 advantage for the Panthers in second-chance scoring.
Ford opted to play 10 players on Wednesday night upon the return of starting point guard Matthew Lee who had been out since Dec. 5 with a wrist injury. Kramer, a newcomer from Saint Louis coming off back surgery, also contributed his first extended minutes in a Bears uniform.
None of the Bears' starters, with Lee coming off the bench, finished the game with a positive in plus-minus — meaning when those individual players were on the floor, the Bears were outscored. Only Lee had a negative in plus-minus among the five different players who came off the bench.
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Edwards led the Bears with 25 points on 11 of 16 shooting with 19 of his points coming in the second half. He kept starter N.J. Benson on the bench as he only played 11 minutes in the game. Starting guard Damien Mayo Jr. played just nine minutes after coming out of the game with a concussion — which Ford expects will sideline him for Saturday's game at Bradley.
Starters Donovan Clay and Chance Moore combined for eight points on 3 of 18 shooting. The bench outscored the starters 38-24.
"You can't play 10 guys," Ford said. "But tonight, I felt like we needed 10 guys to try and get back in the game. The dust will settle on that. But for the guys who did play, some of them need to probably play a little bit better."
Missouri State already sits at 1-2 in league play in a tie with the likes of Evansville, Bradley and Northern Iowa. There may not be too much wiggle room for error with how dominant Indiana State (12-2, 3-0) and Drake (12-2, 3-0) have been throughout non-conference play and early in the league slate if the Bears have hopes of contending for an MVC regular season title.
A trip to Bradley for a 3 p.m. game on Saturday awaits the Bears who haven't had much success there in recent seasons. The Braves are currently 9-5 and coming off an 86-61 road win over a dreadful Valparaiso team that's going to struggle all season long.
The Bears have won four of their last six against the Braves but have fallen in their last two. MSU's lone win at Carver Arena since 2019 came when Isiaih Mosley hit a 3 at the buzzer in 2022. The Bears have lost four of their last six games in Peoria.
"You gotta play well most nights to give yourself a chance to win," Ford said. "Some nights, you gotta play better than what you are. Some nights, you get away with not playing well. In our league, you gotta play well to beat the majority of teams in our league and we'll have to play well in Peoria."
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 couldn't make plays it needed in loss to UNI
