LITTLE ROCK – An early Little Rock scoring drought, coupled with a hot shooting night behind the arc for Missouri State, resulted in a disappointing 81-55 loss to the Bears at the Jack Stephens Center.
Missouri State's three point shooting was the story of the game as the Bears knocked down 16 of their 32 attempts, a new season-high for a Trojan opponent and two off the Jack Stephens Center record for threes made in a game. Little Rock did hit 10 three pointers of its own, but was never able to climb out of the early hole.
Little rock was led by 15 points from
Marko Lukic off the bench, who made six of his 12 attempts and went 3-for-8 from three point range, adding five rebounds and five assists, tied for the team high.
Isaiah Palermo had another strong showing for the Trojans, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds, adding a pair of steals and a block. Those two were the lone Trojans to finish in double figures as
Jovan Stulic added eight points and
Kevin Osawe and
Marko Andric both added six. Andric tied Lukic with five helpers while also adding five assists.
For the game, Little Rock shot just 37.3%, compared to 51.7% for Missouri State as 16 of the Bears' 30 made field goals came beyond the arc. The Bears shot 50% from three compared to 41.7% for Little Rock as the Trojans made just one of their five free throw attempts (20.0%).
Missouri State held a dominant 39-28 rebounding edge on Little Rock, converting 12 Trojan turnovers into 16 points offensively, outscoring Little Rock 13-4 in fast break points.
Little Rock's offense matched the outside temperature on a chilly Little Rock, starting the game 0-for-11 from the floor and going scoreless for nearly the first eight minutes of the game as Missouri State raced out to a 14-0 lead.
The Trojans were able to put together some offensive spurts in the latter parts of the first half, trimming the deficit to as little as seven on four separate occasions, the last of which came off a three-pointer from Osawe at the 5:10 mark to make the score 28-21 Missouri State.
But the Bears' three-point barrage continued to expand the lead as 10 of Missouri State's 16 first half field goals came from beyond the arc, including a stretch of three-straight to push the lead to 17 at 40-23 before holding a 42-28 halftime lead on the Trojans.
After starting 0-for-11, Little Rock made 11 of its last 18 to finish the first half at 37.9% shooting, led by 10 from Lukic, but had no answer for the Bears' 10-for-18 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
Similar to the first half, Missouri State jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, extending the Trojan deficit to 19 at 47-28 just three minutes in. A three from Stulic and a layup from Palermo got the Trojans back to the 14-point halftime hole at 47-33, but that was as much as Little Rock could whittle away at the Bear lead.
Missouri State slowly pulled away from Little Rock, extending its lead to 26 at 76-50, using an 11-2 run behind eight-straight points from Isiaih Mosley. The Trojan deficit would grow to as many as 29 at 81-52 with under a minute to play before
Terrell Curtis II's three pointer in the corner pushed the final score to 81-55.
The Bears were led by the duo of Mosley and Ja'Monta Black, who combined for 46 points on 18-of-32 shooting as Black knocked down seven threes. Jaylen Minnett finished with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting as well.
The loss is the first of the season at home for the Trojans as Little Rock is now 1-9 all-time against Missouri State. The Trojans fall to 4-6 on the year, having dropped six of its last seven during a tough stretch of the season.
Little Rock remains at home and will face Philander Smith Saturday at the Jack Stephens Center. The game against the Panthers will tip at 2 p.m.
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