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.

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.

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.