2 MVC games Tuesday, Jan. 26

[Da Coach]

There are 2 MVC games tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 26, including a battle for 1st place between Drake and Missouri State (7 pm, ESPN+)

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/scoreboard/_/group/18/date/20210126

The other game features SIU at Indiana State at 4 pm on ESPN+. Indiana State edged SIU last night 69-66.

[Da Coach]

There are 2 MVC games tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 26, including a battle for 1st place between Drake and Missouri State (7 pm, ESPN+)
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba.../date/20210126

The other game features SIU at Indiana State at 4 pm on ESPN+. Indiana State edged SIU last night 69-66.

In the 4 pm game, SIU played pretty well without their leading scorer Marcus Domask and hung in the game at Indiana State, but Indiana State is also playing extremely well lately and look like a serious contender for a top 4 or 5 seed.
Indiana State pulled away late to beat SIU 71-59-
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId=401277074

Indiana State started the MVC schedule 0-4 with two losses each to Drake and at Missouri State. But now they have won 5 of their last 6 games, including 4 in a row including a win over Loyola, the only loss LU has so far.. The Sycamores are 8-7, and 5-5 in the MVC, and their series' with Drake, MSU, Loyola, and SIU are behind them.

SIU drops their 5th game in a row after a 7-0 start, and they are now 7-5 overall, and 1-5 in the MVC. They have the fewest wins of any team in the MVC, and still have to play Bradley, UNI, Drake, Missouri State, Valpo and Illinois State.
In tonight's game, Trent Brown, who came in to the game shooting 48.8% from three, was 4-9 from the arc, but without Domask to help spread the defenses, the rest of the SIU team was just 4-20 from three.


The Drake game at Missouri State game starts at 7 pm on ESPN+. Drake is 13-0, & 4-0 in the MVC, but they haven't played a game since January 4.
Missouri State is 9-1 & 5-1 in the MVC. The Bears are undefeated at home this year (5-0), and they are 4-1 in road games. Their only loss was 85-75 at Northern Iowa back on Dec. 28. Missouri State is averaging 1,063 fans per game, and they should have a slight home court advantage because of their crowd. It should be a great game. Drake is a 3.5 point Vegas favorite, but I think Missouri State will win the game.
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id...ri_State-US-EN

[Da Coach]

The Drake-Missouri State game is on FoxSports Midwest Plus channel. That may be why it appears to be blacked out on ESPN+.
On Comcast Xfinity, FoxSports Midwest Plus is channels 520 and 1256.

[Da Coach]

Missouri State has dominated Drake from the start. The Bears lead by as many as 17 points, and have a 41-26 lead at halftime.

https://missouristatebears.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Drake, the top 3-point shooting team in the country, shot only 16.7% in the first half from three (1-6). Missouri State was 1-8 from three, but they shot 60% overall (18-30). MSU dominated the boards outrebounding Drake 25-12.

[bigjimmy]

Drake looking like they’ve been off for 3 weeks losing to Missouri State 41-26 at the half. Darnell Brodie is the only one doing anything for the Bulldogs as he has 14 points on 7-11 shooting and 6 rebounds. The rest of the team is 5-25. They are the #1 team in the nation at 3 point % at 43% but are just 1-6 so far. They have just 3 assists as they are trying to do too much one on one. While the Bears are just 1-8 from 3 and have 8 turnovers they 17-22 from 2 and have out rebounded Drake 23-12. Gage Prim, who looks like he’s lost weight and is in great shape, has 14 points and 9 rebounds. Isiaih Mosley has 8 points, 5 rebounds and 5 turnovers.

[Da Coach]

The Drake-Missouri State game has suddenly gotten close. In the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half, Drake outscored Missouri State 16-4 to trim their lead to 45-42-

https://missouristatebears.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

[bigjimmy]

What a turnaround! Drake has outscored MSU 30-12 in the first 16:00 minutes of the second half to lead 56-53

[Da Coach]

Drake comes from 17 points down in the first half to beat Missouri State 68-61 in Springfield in the first of back to back nights.

https://missouristatebears.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

This was a game with 2 very different halves. In the first half, Drake, the 3rd best overall FG% team in the county and the best 3ptFG% team in the country, shot just 33.3% overall and 16.7% from three, and scored 26 points. But in the 2nd half they improved to 41% and 38% from three, and scored 42 points.
On the other hand, Missouri State shot 60% in the first half and scored 41 points. But they went cold and shot only 21.7% in the 2nd half, and were held to just 20 points. Gage Prim, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the first half, had only 6 points and 4 rebounds in the 2nd half.

So Drake improves to 14-0, and 5-0 in the MVC, while MSU drops to 9-2, and 5-2 in the MVC.
The two teams will play again Wednesday night at 8 pm on ESPN+.

[bigjimmy]

Just a stunning turnaround in this game. Drake and Missouri State both came out like different teams in the second half. The Bears had 6 FG’s in the second half. They went up 49-42 with 10:46 left and didn’t get a FG until there was 32.6 seconds left. They were just 6-29 in the second half and for the game they were just 2-16 from 3. They also had 18 turnovers. Prim finished with 18 points, 14 in the first half, and had 16 rebounds but he hardly saw the ball in the paint in the second half. Mosley finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 turnovers and he tried to force the issue too much offensively as threw up some H.O.R.S.E. type shots that didn’t go in. Drake outscored them in the last 10:46 26-12 as Roman Penn scored 15 of his game high 20 points in the second half. Brodie, who scored 14 in the first half, finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds. After a 10 day+ break Mo Valley teams had been 0-5. This is the first time Drake has started 14-0 and it’s only the 8th time since World War 2 that a Mo Valley team has done that. They get back after it tomorrow. WOW.

[Dubl R 1]

Bradley could play a team of telephone poles and they’d shoot better than 2-16 from 3.

We don’t ever seem to catch a team that shoots like that