Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Carl Richard, Jordan Printy and Dwayne Lathan each reached double figures scoring and the Sycamore defense held the Bears to just 31.3 percent shooting as ISU won for just the fifth time ever at Missouri State by the score of 59-46 in front of 6,911 fans inside JQH Arena.
Indiana State won for the second time this season on the road in league play and extended its Missouri Valley Conference winning streak to three games to improve to 17-12, 8-9 MVC while the Bears fell to 16-14, 9-8 MVC.
With the victory, the Sycamores reached 17 regular season victories for the third consecutive season, the longest for the Sycamores since posting three in a row in 1976-77, 1977-78, 1978-79. ISU also improved to a perfect 10-0 this season when holding teams to 63 points or less this season as well as 25-0 under second-year head coach Greg Lansing, including a mark of 10-0 when holding teams under 53 or less. Missouri State's 46 points are their fewest in the four-year history of playing at JQH Arena.
Carl Richard, who reached 1,000 career points last week at home against Illinois State, pull down five rebounds to reach 700 for his career. Richard is one of just five Sycamores to score at least 1,000 career points and pulled down over 700 rebounds in their career (Larry Bird, Jerry Newsom, Matt Renn, Jim Cruse are the others).
Richard, Printy and Lathan each reached double figures scoring as Lathan posted 12 points, Printy had 11 and Richard tallied 10 as the Sycamores limited the Bears to just 20-of-64 shooting (31.3 percent), which marked the best defensive performance for ISU this year.
Indiana State raced out to a quick 5-0 lead on a jumper by Jake Odum, following with a 3-pointer by RJ Mahurin. The Sycamores were held without a field goal for nearly the next four minutes, but the ISU defense held MSU to just four points until Carl Richard scored on a lay-up with just under 15 minutes left to stretch the lead out to 7-4.
Richard would go on to score six early points in the game as he led a personal 4-0 run to answer a Missouri State bucket as ISU owned an 11-6 lead with 12:41 to go in the opening stanza.
With 5:32 left in the first half, Isaiah Rhine scored for the Bears to cut the Sycamore lead down to 16-14, and ISU went on a key 12-0 run started by a lay-up from Walker and two free throws by Richard for a 20-14 advantage. Walker made it 22-14 with a lay-up with 3:13 to go and Lathan's conventional 3-point play with 2:36 to go made it 25-14.
The 12-0 run as well as the Sycamores' scoring in the first half would end with a trey by Lucas Eitel with 2:19 to go as ISU owned a 28-14 advantage and forced the Bears to call a timeout. Missouri State would score twice in the final two minutes to take a 28-18 lead into the lockerroom.
The Sycamores limited the Bears to just 25.8 percent in the first half (8-of-31) while ISU hit 11-of-25 shots for 44 percent.
Missouri State would not go away as they scored 11 of the first 13 points after halftime to cut the Sycamore lead down to 30-27 on a jumper by Christian Kirk with 14:42 remaining. Dwayne Lathan stretched things back out for ISU with a 3-pointer at the 13:01 mark as the lead grew back out to 33-27. That was followed by a steal and fast break lay-up by McWhorter as the clocked ticked down towards 12 minutes to go to make it 35-27.
Caleb Patterson cut the Sycamore lead down to 37-31 with 10:39 left in the game, but ISU got a bucket by Mahurin and then a trey from Printy with 9:01 left to stretch the advantage out to 42-31.
The reigning Missouri Valley Conference Player Of The Year Kyle Weems, playing his final game at JQH Arena, cut the Sycamore lead down to just 44-36 with 6:38 left, but the Sycamore defense clamped down and got baskets from Walker and Steve McWhorter to lead 48-36 with 4:22 remaining. Anthony Downing cut the ISU lead down to 48-38 before Lathan hit a pair of free throws with 3:36 remaining to run the cushion out to 50-38.
Anthony Downing was one of two Bears to reach double figures scoring as he paced the team with 14 points.
Indiana State concludes the regular season on Saturday, February 25 when the Sycamores host Creighton at 4:05 p.m. (ET) inside Hulman Center. The game will be televised live on ESPN2, marking the network's first appearance at Hulman Center since 2002.
