CARBONDALE, Ill. – Missouri State’s Gaige Prim scored had career highs in points and rebounds with 29 and 21, respectively, to lead the Bears to a 68-53 road win over Southern Illinois here Wednesday.
The Bears (15-5, 11-5 MVC) never trailed in rolling to their sixth straight Missouri Valley Conference win and first in Carbondale since 2014.
Prim, whose rebound total tied for the 17th-best in program history, also converted 13-of-19 field goals and blocked 3 shots in a 34-minute effort. His 20-20 game was Missouri State’s first since Alize Johnson had 24 points and 20 rebounds against Northern Iowa on Jan. 4, 2018 – ironically the last time the Bears were 10 games over .500.
Demarcus Sharp added 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists to the winning cause for the Bears.
Lance Jones led SIU (10-10, 4-10 MVC) with 13 points, including the game’s final six points when the outcome was in hand.
The Bears stormed out of the gates, making their first nine shots to lead 20-3 just seven minutes into the contest.
Southern Illinois returned fire with a 13-4 run over the next five minutes to trim its deficit to eight. But Missouri State ended the opening stanza with another fantastic flurry, getting 4 points from Sharp and 6 more from Prim before the intermission to lead 36-22 at the break.
Prim had 16 points and 12 rebounds in the first half to set the blistering pace for the Bears.
In the second half, it took coach Dana Ford’s squad just over five minutes to push its advantage to 20 points for the first time. Prim’s layup with 14:44 to go made it 46-26 at the time.
From there, MSU would lead by as many as 21 points on three occasions – first on a 3-pointer by Jared Ridder with 11:29 to play, and later on a triple by Ja’Monta Black at the 6:48 mark. Finally, Sharp’s quick hitter with 2:12 remaining made it 68-47 before Jones closed out the contest with six unanswered points for the home side and make it a 15-point final margin.
On the evening, Missouri State finished 30-of-58 (.517) from the field, 5-for-19 (.263) from long range and 3-for-4 (.750) at the line with a 43-27 rebounding advantage. Missouri State also accounted for 42 points in the paint.
Southern Illinois was 20-of-58 (.345) overall, 6-for-24 (.250) from downtown and 7-of-14 (.500) at the line with just 6 turnovers. The Salukis had just 4 offensive rebounds on the evening, leading to 5 second-chance points.
The Bears, who are 6-1 in MVC road games this season, wrap up the regular season next weekend at Evansville, Feb. 26-27, with both games starting at 6 p.m., at the Ford Center. The State Farm MVC Tournament runs March 4-7 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
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