The final 98 seconds, however, were not without controversy. After a put-back by Will Creekmore gave the Bears a 54-50 advantage, UNI went to Kwadzo Ahelegbe on its next possession. With 22 seconds on the shot clock, Ahelegbe drove hard to the basket and was fouled by Creekmore just outside the paint.

Officials called Creekmore for an intentional foul. When Ahelegbe stayed down, the Panthers substituted with Ali Farkhmanesh, who made one-of-two free throws. The intentional foul call gave UNI the ball. On the ensuing in-bounds play, the Panthers attacked immediately and got a short jumper by Adam Koch to make it a 54-53 game with 1:18 on the clock.

With a narrow lead, the Bears ran the clock on their next possession before Adam Leonard, who finished with a game-high 17 points, drove to the basket and was blocked by Jordan Eglseder. The Panthers collected the rebound and wasted no time getting it down the floor, turning to Kerwin Dunahm for his only basket of the game with 40 seconds to go to take a 55-54 lead.

Much like their previous possession, the Bears had a chance to win the game down the stretch with a pair of up-close chances. First, Creekmore drove to the bucket and could not get the roll or the call with 10 seconds to play. After the junior center kept the rebound alive for MSU, the Bears set up a play after their final timeout and eight seconds on the clock.

Leonard got the ball in the corner and drove the baseline but his shot was challenged. When Adam Koch emerged from the crowd of flying bodies with the ball, he simply tossed it into the air to allow the final three seconds to expire.

In addition to Leonard's performance, MSU got 9 points from Jermaine Mallett and 8 from Creekmore, who also posted a game-high 7 rebounds.

UNI was led by Eglseder's 14 points, while Koch scored 10.

The Bears outrebounded UNI 31-29 in the game and had just eight turnovers to the Panthers' 10. MSU also collected five three-pointers, including four by Leonard who was 4-of-9 from beyond the arc for his best outing in two weeks.

Cuonzo Martin's squad was 22-of-56 (.393) from the field and made five of the seven free throws (.714) they were awarded in the contest. Northern Iowa (19-2, 9-1), on the other hand, got to the line 16 times, making 12 (.750) and made good on 20-of-44 (.455) field goals.

There were 10 lead changes and five ties overall in the contest. Perhaps no MSU shot was more critical than Leonard's three at the 10:31 mark of the second half.

UNI had just taken a 42-35 lead, its biggest of the afternoon, on a three-pointer by Marc Sonnen, his second in a span of just over a minute. Leonard's response cut the MSU deficit to four, and then made it a three-point game with another trey 35 seconds later to answer an Eglseder put-back and make it a 44-41 contest.

With 8:52 to play in the game, Keith Pickens emerged with a towering put-back dunk to make it a one-point contest, and the Bears were able to tie the game just over four minutes later on Leonard's third trey of the half to make it a 50-50 game. Leonard gave the Bears a 52-50 lead with 2:43 to go before Creekmore's put-back just over a minute later.

The paid attendance of 9,087 was fourth-largest in JQH Arena history and 18th-largest in Missouri State history.

In the first half, After UNI scored the game's first basket on a jumper by Ahelegbe, the Bears tallied 13 of the game's next 17 points to hold a 13-6 lead on a dunk by Isaiah Rhine at the 12:12 mark.

Missouri State rallied to lead 19-15 with just 7:42 to go in the first period on a jumper by Kyle Weems, and then UNI started chipping away. A three-pointer by Jake Koch 36 seconds later made it a one-point game, and then a pair of free throws by Lucas O'Rear gave the Panthers their first lead since the opening minute, 20-19 with 6:16 to go.

Northern Iowa managed just two field goals the rest of the half, but finished 7-for-9 at the charity stripe as MSU was called for nine personal fouls, and UNI went into the intermission with a 26-24 lead.

The Bears hit the road Wednesday as they continue MVC play at Southern Illinois at 7:05 p.m. before returning home next Saturday to host Creighton at 7:05 p.m. Cuonzo Martin's squad will learn its BracketBusters opponent Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. during an ESPNU selection show.
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EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The Missouri State Lady Bears used a dominant first-half performance to build a 21-point halftime lead over Evansville and never looked back, claiming an 86-57 victory Saturday afternoon at Roberts Stadium. Casey Garrison turned in a 28-point performance, hitting 12-of-13 field goal attempts to help the Lady Bears close out the first half of Missouri Valley Conference play in style.

Missouri State, which improved to 14-6 on the season and 6-3 in MVC play, posted one of its best all-around outings of the season, shooting .531 (34-of-64) from the field as a team, while holding the Purple Aces to a 20-of-58 (.345) shooting effort and forcing 21 UE turnovers.

The Lady Bears took a 45-24 lead into intermission after converting 18-of-35 field goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes. MSU was even better after the break, hitting 55.2 percent of their second-half shots, as Evansville would get no closer than 16 points.

After a slow start to the game that saw both clubs combine to hit just one of the first 11 shots taken, the Lady Bears sprinted out to a 9-1 lead with three baskets in a 50 second span. Christiana Shorter started the 6-0 MSU run with a strong drive to the basket, and Regan Soldner knocked down a 15-foot jumper on the Lady Bears' next possession. To cap the spurt, Garrison drove baseline for a short jumper to stake the Lady Bears to an early eight-point advantage.

Evansville got back-to-back buckets from Samantha Heck and Amy Gallagher to momentarily pull to within four with 15:34 to play.

But the Lady Bears reeled off 11 unanswered points over the next four minutes to stretch their lead to 20-5. Garrison kicked off the scoring with three straight field goals, and Jasmine Malone punctuated the run with a three-pointer at the 11:49 mark.

After a pair of UE free throws, Melissa Busby drained her second three of the game to push the MSU lead to 16.

The Purple Aces sliced the Lady Bear lead to nine, as Chelsea Falkenstein's field goal with 6:18 left made it a 27-18 game. But MSU scored the next eight points to reestablish their double-digit cushion, and outscored UE 18-6 over the remainder of the half to take their largest lead of the game into the break.

At the onset of the second half it looked as though the Lady Bears would eliminate any doubt about the outcome of the contest, as Garrison knocked down two quick shots to push the Missouri State lead to 50-26. But UE wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel, scoring eight straight points to draw to within 16 of MSU.

The Lady Bears responded with a 19-9 scoring run over the ensuing seven minutes to push the margin to 69-43. Garrison was once again right in the middle of things, scoring four more times during the key stretch. MSU would extend its lead to as many as 32 points in the closing minutes by holding the Purple Aces to just three points in the final 5:02.

In addition to Garrison's standout performance, Missouri State got 15 points, six rebounds and three assists from Malone. Shorter chipped in with 12 points, and Jaleshia Roberson added 11 points and a career-high nine assists.

Heck led the Purple Aces with 15 points and eight rebounds, and Gallagher added 10 points for UE, which fell to 4-16 overall and 1-8 in the Valley.

The Lady Bears will return home to JQH Arena next Friday (Feb. 5) evening to take on the Creighton Bluejays in a 7:35 p.m., contest.
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No. 15 Drury overcame one lackluster opening half with an explosive final one to roll past Maryville 81-52 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon.

After scoring just 26 points in the first half and trailing by three as a result, Drury put up 27 points in the first eight minutes of the second - and outscored Maryville 55-23 in the second half - to turn a deficit into the anticipated rout. The Panthers picked up their seventh straight victory, improving to 17-3 overall and 10-1 in the GLVC.

The Saints, first-year GLVC members and in their second season of moving up from the NCAA-III level, fell to 2-19 and 0-12.

Drury hit just 35 percent from the field (11 of 31) in the first half, but bounced back with a 66-percent effort in the second half (21 of 32). The Panthers were just 4 of 16 from 3-point range, including 1 of 8 in the first half.

"Give Maryville credit; they executed what they do with intensity and fire in their belly a lot better than the Drury Panthers did in the first half," Drury coach Steve Hesser said. "We had 12 turnovers; we were outrebounded five in the first half; give them the credit. I like passion and I like fire in your belly, and that's what Maryville played with in the first half and Drury did not.

"We talked at halftime about how we had an advantage inside, we weren't very tough inside, and then we started the second half getting the ball inside. We went to our spot-up zone and got them to turn it over, which let us get into transition, and we did a lot better job in the second half of sharing the basketball and worrying about Drury instead of worrying about 'me.' "

Chris Parks hit 8 of 10 shots and had 17 points and seven rebounds to lead six Panthers in double-figures. Dominique Long had 14 points, Alex Hall added 12 points, Brandon Lockhart finished with 11 points and Dennon Mitchell and Cable Hogue added 10 points each off the bench for Drury.

Redshirt freshman Sara Jane Plemmons came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points and lead five Lady Panthers in double-figures as Drury fought off a pesky Maryville 78-74 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Panthers had to claw back from a 15-point deficit in the first half to push their records to 18-4 overall and 10-1 in the GLVC and claim the 250th victory in the program's 10-year history (Drury is now 250-54). The Saints, first-year members of the GLVC, fell to 5-15 and 3-9.

Plemmons, picking up extra time due to Drury foul difficulties and the absence of senior starting post Caitlin Shouse (concussion), played a career-high 26 minutes and hit all six of her FG attempts to pace the Lady Panthers, who also saw senior forward Melanie Oliver add 15 points and 10 rebounds for her school-record 21st double-double of her career.

Drury needed every bit of it to hold off a Maryville team that lost 92-41 to the Lady Panthers at Weiser last season, but is a much different team at home and in their second season since moving up from being one of the top teams in NCAA-III.

"I told the girls that you've got to be comfortable with a target on your back, and we weren't very comfortable today," Drury coach Steve Harold said. "This is a proud Maryville program that wants to be successful in the GLVC; give them a lot of the credit. They came out and made shots and took it to us.

"I'm just very disappointed in our effort today, but sometimes you've got to win games like that. I'm thankful we're talking about a victory right now instead of a difficult loss."

Ja'Nell Jones added 12 points and nine assists while Katie Pritchard and Lindsay Ballweg contributed 10 points each for Drury, which trailed 31-16 midway through the first half after the Saints hit five 3-pointers in the game's first 10 minutes. But a 20-0 run by the Lady Panthers - and a defense that held the Saints without a field goal for the final 10:07 of the first half - produced a 39-35 Drury lead at the break.

"Our press was the difference in the ballgame ... we had to do something," Harold said. "We didn't shoot the 3 well, we were 11 for 20 from the free-throw line, which is very, very poor, and those things are just due to a lack of focus. We shoot the ball too well to have those kinds of numbers."

But Maryville hung tough from there, refusing to go away and even grabbing a five-point lead early in the second half. Drury led by 10 (68-58) on Plemmons' basket with 5:40 remaining, but the Saints had it back down to a two-point game (73-71) with 1:15 remaining after a bucket by Angela Pepowski.

Drury countered with a drive by Oliver, a free throw from Jones and two free throws from Pritchard - the latter making it 78-71 with 21 seconds left - to hold off the Saints.
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Elsewhere on the area scene, Evangel swept a pair of games at Lamoni, Iowa, against Graceland. The 12-9 men won 90-77 while the 16-4 Lady Crusaders 81-59 victory marked their 10th consecutive win after losing their Heart of Ameria conference opener.