With Missouri State coming off a huge win against Loyola-Chicago last week, a team who last season won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and made it to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament, the Bears are in a three-way tie for first place between Drake and Loyola.
The Bears are on a four-game winning streak and are the hottest team in the Missouri Valley Conference. Missouri State's leading scorer in the win was Keandre Cook who scored 18 points and was 2 for 3 from the 3-point line. Junior forward Tulio Da Silva scored 16 points and was a dominant weapon on defense against Loyola-Chicago's leading scorer, Cameron Krutwig and getting nine rebounds.
Da Silva also earned MVC Player of the Week and continues to be a shining star in this very talented Missouri State team. In addition to those two dominant performances by Da Silva and Cook the three starting seniors also put up wonderful performances as Jared Dixon, who scored ten points, continues to be a constant threat to teams and Ryan Kreklow and Josh Webster continue to be cold-blooded with combined 16 points, fifteen of which were 3-pointers.
With there only being four more games left in the regular season, the MVC conference is coming down to the wire.
Some may doubt the Bears and their ability to finish in such a tough conference with a Drake team that is an astonishing 21-7, an Illinois State squad that is right on their tail, and a Loyola-Chicago team with high expectations and a 6-9 255-pound giant in Cameron Krutwig but I believe in the Bears.
A common thing that I have seen with other teams that I haven't seen with the Missouri State Bears squad is the heavy reliance on one or two players on the team for scoring. In two of Missouri States past four wins the guy who scores the most points haven't been on the Missouri State squad. In the Loyola-Chicago game, the second highest scorer wasn't on the Bear's team either.
The key and the advantage of this squad compared to everyone else in the MVC is that everyone on the team is good. Sure, they might not have the best or second-best player in the league, but the Bear's simply just held each other up and is all around a strong team.
