Missouri State's Dequon Miller scored the team's last eight points and helped lead the Bears to a 55-51 home win over Evansville here Wednesday in Missouri Valley Conference play.
Miller, who finished with 13 points and 5 assists, controlled the game's last five minutes for MSU, which led by as many as 15 points in the second half. Miller's 3-pointer with just over five minutes to play ended an 11-3 run by the Purple Aces and gave the Bears a six-point lead.
In the final minute, he iced three of four free throws to end Evansville's late run and push Missouri State (12-6, 3-2 MVC) to 9-2 at JQH Arena this season.
Jarrid Rhodes also pitched in 14 points for the home side with Alize Johnson contributing 16 rebounds to match a career high.
Evansville (10-8, 1-4 MVC) got 19 points from both Ryan Taylor and Jaylon Brown with David Howard snagging 10 rebounds.
Both teams struggled to make shots early in the game with Missouri State leading 22-16 at the intermission. But the second half had a different tone with the Valley rivals amping up the defense and trading clutch shots.
Early in the second stanza, Missouri State used a 9-2 run to extend its lead to 36-22 with just under 15 minutes to play. A 3-pointer by Miller and another trey by Rhodes at the 13:38 mark gave the Bears their biggest lead of the night, 39-24.
Evansville responded with a 9-0 outburst of its own over the next three minutes to get within six. However, MSU's Rhodes responded with his third trey of the night, followed by a pair of free throws, to push the home club's lead back to double figures at the midway point of the second half.
Brown then got rolling for Evansville with 9 points in a three-minute stretch to get the Aces within three with 5:19 to play. MSU's only bucket during that run was a 17-foot jumper by Obediah Church, but Brown responded with a quick triple on Evansville's next trip and a goal-tended drive to the bucket 20 seconds later.
Miller came up big from there, draining a key three with 5:01 to play and later burying an elbow jumper at the 3:46 mark to keep Evansville at a safe distance.
Taylor responded with a big jumper for Evansville to make it a 52-49 game, which stood until Brown drove hard to the bucket for a layup with 10 seconds to go. The visitors then fouled Miller twice in the final 9.7 seconds, giving the senior a chance to clinch the win.
"Dequon was our rock out there," said MSU head coach Paul Lusk. "He guard Jaylon Brown, he had to create shots late in the shot clock, and he made some big shots and big free throws down the stretch."
Despite the team's lowest point production of the season, the Bears ended a five-game skid against Evansville and locked up their 46th consecutive winning record at home with just five home games remaining on the 2016-17 slate.
For the game, the Bears were 19-for-57 (.333) from the field and 8-of-23 (.348) from long range while converting 9-of-17 (.529) at the line. MSU out-rebounded the Aces by a 39-30 margin and committed just 10 turnovers.
Evansville was 21-for-50 (.420) from the field, 2-of-8 (.250) from downtown and 7-of-12 (.583) at the foul line with 9 turnovers. The Purple Aces accounted for more than half their scoring in the paint with 28 points from close range.
The Bears will take to the Valley road for their next two conference games, starting Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. against Loyola in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU. After a Jan. 18 game at Indiana State, MSU returns to JQH Arena on Saturday, Jan. 21 to battle Bradley at 2 p.m. on Hall of Fame weekend.
Tickets for the Bradley game may be purchase at the Old Missouri Bank Box Office or by phone at (417) 836-7678. Regular-priced tickets are also available anytime at MissouriStateBears.com.
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