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Missouri State basketball beats Evansville for win the Bears desperately needed

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Missouri State basketball beats Evansville for win the Bears desperately needed


Missouri State men’s basketball got the win it desperately needed to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Bears (10-7, 2-4) are back in the win column following a 74-64 win at Evansville (10-7, 1-5) on Saturday evening. The loss is the Purple Aces’ fifth straight.

The win follows a tumultuous week. The Bears were non-competitive in an 86-60 loss at Bradley seven days before and then turned in a 77-53 dud in a home defeat to Murray State. The embarrassment from the losses resulted in Missouri State Athletics Director Kyle Moats issuing a rare in-season statement saying he expected more from the program.

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Luckily for Moats and sixth-year head coach Dana Ford, the Bears got more in the form of a performance from sophomore N.J. Benson who finished the game with 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting with 13 rebounds.

Three others also scored in double-digits including Alston Mason (18), Donovan Clay (14) and Raphe Ayres (14). Ford elected to shorten his rotation on Saturday night by playing just seven players.

More: Dana Ford shouldn’t shoulder all of the blame after Missouri State AD’s surprise statement

Evansville was without its best player in freshman Chuck Bailey III who is trending toward the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year honor.

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The Purple Aces were held to 33.9% shooting with Joshua Hughes scoring 22 points on 7 of 12 shooting. All other Evansville players were a combined 14 of 50.

Feeling a bit better than previously, Missouri State will now face its toughest challenge yet when it travels to Indiana State (14-3, 5-1) for a Tuesday game at 6 p.m.

The Sycamores are coming off a 94-64 home victory over Belmont which had been playing well and had a 22-point win over Drake the week before.

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.

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Missouri

Missouri Spire customers can expect decrease in their bills beginning Nov. 15

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Missouri Spire customers can expect decrease in their bills beginning Nov. 15


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Spire customers can expect a decrease in their bills beginning Nov. 15, the energy company announced Tuesday.

It comes after the Missouri Public Service Commission approved the changes to reflect lower gas prices and recovery of deferred costs from a 2021 winter storm that prompted controlled outages from energy companies.

According to Spire, customers in Western Missouri will have their monthly bill decrease by an average of $18.70, or 17.41%.

For Eastern Missouri customers, the average monthly bill will decrease by $15.86, or 16.18%.

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The decrease represents a ccf change of $0.91988 to $0.62139 for Western Missouri customers and a ccf change of $0.77588 to $0.52486 for Eastern Missouri customers.





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How OU football learned ‘margin for error is small’ in SEC during loss to Missouri

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How OU football learned ‘margin for error is small’ in SEC during loss to Missouri


COLUMBIA, Mo. — When OU got the football back with the game tied and 1:03 left, it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise to see the Sooners play for overtime.

After all, they hadn’t had a passing play by a quarterback for more than 14 yards, so moving quickly down the field through the air seemed unlikely.

But OU coach Brent Venables decided to take a chance, especially after the pass-interference call drawn by Deion Burks in the first play of the drive.

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After that, Xavier Robinson was stopped after a 5-yard gain to the OU 35 before Jackson Arnold’s fumble that was returned for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown in the Sooners’ 30-23 loss.

Venables said he saw an opportunity to break off a much bigger run on the call to get Robinson the ball.

“They’re in a really, really light box,” Venables said. “Added it up to get an explosive run there. … Thought it could be an opportunity to get a big run there and get them on their heels and to get them out of that concept.”

The drive before that wasn’t exactly much better.

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OU’s defense had been fantastic all day, but over the last three plays melted down a bit.

Jacobe Johnson slipped just before Drew Pyne found Luther Burden for a 33-yard gain to give Missouri the ball at the 10, then former OU receiver Theo Wease made a strong play on a 10-yard touchdown pass that tied it with 1:03 remaining.

Not long before the touchdown, Woodi Washington was called for defensive holding after the Sooners looked like they’d come up with a third-down stop.

“It wasn’t like there was a big bust and somebody was wide open, you know,” defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “We just had a couple mistakes in a game in the SEC; the margin for error is small.”

Here’s a look at the rest of the OU stock report after the Sooners fell to Missouri:

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OU football stock report

Stock rising

Luke Elzinga, P: Elzinga was excellent at his primary job, with three punts for 44.3 yards including one inside the 20. But he also had a 43-yard completion to Bauer Sharp on an early fake punt, and had as many passing yards in the first half as did Jackson Arnold.

Danny Stutsman, LB: Stutsman finished with 19 tackles — his career high and tied for 11th in a game in OU history — against Missouri. Just as important, Stutsman didn’t miss any tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.

Stock falling

Jackson Arnold, QB: Arnold continues to take one step forward and two steps back. He was just 15 of 24 for 74 yards against the Tigers, plus he fumbled three times — losing two. 

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OU’s bowl hopes: The game against Missouri seemed OU’s best chase of making a bowl game, and they seem a long shot to make one at 5-7 based on APR numbers, so now the Sooners’ hopes for extending their bowl streak rest on pulling off an upset of either Alabama at home or LSU on the road. Neither seems particularly likely.

Redshirt tracker: Xavier Robinson one game away from mark

Freshman running back Xavier Robinson hadn’t played until the loss to Texas.

But now, Robinson is looking like one of the Sooners’ most effective running backs.

That could test Brent Venables’ desire to redshirt Robinson.

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With Jovantae Barnes out and Gavin Sawchuk remaining less than 100%, Robinson was OU’s leading rusher against Missouri, with nine carries for 56 yards.

Almost all of Tatum’s production — seven carries for 48 yards — came on the Sooners’ game-tying drive in the fourth quarter. He also had a 7-yard reception on the drive.

“He was fantastic,” Venables said. “Just kind of building off what he showed last week as well, got in and did well early, in the early snaps he got in, went with him because he was running through trash, great instincts, ran well behind his pads, broke a lot of tackles.”

Robinson is averaging 5.7 yards per carry on 15 carries so far this season.

Here’s a look at the redshirt tracker after the win over Maine:

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  • Played in five or more games: Eli Bowen, Michael Boganowski, Ivan Carreon,  Jaydan Hardy, Michael Hawkins Jr., Jayden Jackson, Devon Jordan, Zion Kearney, Dasan McCullough*, Reggie Powers III,  Zion Ragins, David Stone, Taylor Tatum
  • Played in four games: Jacob Jordan, Xavier Robinson, Makari Vickers*
  • Played in three games: Eugene Brooks, Kendel Dolby*, Jeremiah Newcombe, Danny Okoye 
  • Played in two games: Jalil Farooq*, Eddy Pierre-Louis, Gentry Williams*
  • Played in one game: Daniel Akinkunmi, Andrel Anthony*, Isaiah Autry-Dent, Liam Evans, Wyatt Gilmore, Ace Hodges, Bergin Kysar, James Nesta, Nigel Smith II

*Non-freshman



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Brady’s 21 lead Missouri State past Missouri Southern State

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Brady’s 21 lead Missouri State past Missouri Southern State


SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Vincent Brady II’s 21 points helped Missouri State defeat Missouri Southern State 90-61 on Monday night.

Brady had six rebounds and three steals for the Bears (1-1). Dez White shot 6 of 12 from the field, including 1 for 5 from 3-point range, and went 3 for 3 from the foul line to add 16 points. Zaxton King went 5 of 6 from the field (3 for 4 from 3-point range) to finish with 14 points while adding four steals.

Tyrique Brooks finished with 21 points for the Lions. Tyrone Wright added 12 points and six rebounds for Missouri Southern State. Sam Thompson had six points.

Missouri State took the lead with 14:11 remaining in the first half and never looked back. White led their team in scoring with 14 points in the first half, helping put them up 43-29 at the break. Brady scored 17 points in the second half to help lead the way as Missouri State went on to secure a victory, outscoring Missouri Southern State by 15 points in the second half.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email.



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