DES MOINES, Iowa – Ja’Monta Black finished with six points, but they all came in the final minute to help lift Missouri State to a 66-62 dramatic, come-from-behind win at Drake Wednesday.
The Bears (18-8, 9-4 MVC) were led by 21 points from Gaige Prim and 14 points from Isiaih Mosley, with Lu’Cye Patterson and Jaylen Minnett each pumping in 10 points. Mosley also had a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Bears trailed by as many as eight and fell behind, 56-50, on a dunk by ShanQuan Hemphill with 5:56 to go that had the Knapp Center gathering of more than 3,300 on its feet.
But the Bears turned to Prim who quickly got MSU back within 56-54 on back-to-back layups heading into the final media timeout.
From there, MSU got three straight defensive stops while buckets from Patterson, and Prim tied the game up, 58-58 at the 1:45 mark, and a pair of free throws from black with a minute to go gave the Bears a two-point advantage.
After another Bears’ stop, Mosley sank a pair of free throws to give MoState its biggest lead of the night, 62-58.
Roman Penn got a length of the floor layup to keep Drake in it, but then Black’s open layup at the 13-second mark gave the visitors a four-point edge again. Black would then put it out of reach with 8.3 seconds to go with a pair of free throws to give the Bears their fifth Valley road win of the season.
MSU finished 23-of-50 (.460) from the field, but was an even 12-for-24 in the second half. The Bears were 4-for-15 (.267) from three and an impressive 16-for-19 (.842) at the line with a 35-33 rebounding edge.
Drake was 22-for-60 (.367) overall, 3-of-15 (.200) from three and 15-for-16 (.938) at the line.
Darnell Brodie, Hemphill and Garrett Sturtz led Drake with 12 points apiece.
There were four ties and eight lead changes in the first half, but Drake took a narrow 30-29 lead into the intermission behind 10 points from Brodie and 20 points in the paint.
The Bears fell behind 8-0 out of the gates but held Drake to 8-for-29 from the field after that to get back in it. Mosley led the Bears’ resurgence with 12 first-half points, while Prim pitched in 11. They combined for nine of MSU’s 11 first-half field goals with Minnett scoring the other two.
The Bears return to JQH Arena Saturday for a 3 p.m. matchup with Valparaiso.
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