MSU Lady Bears enter MVC title mix with win at Illinois State. Men avoid upset at Evansville.

The Missouri State men's and women's basketball teams both came away with wins on Sunday afternoon before the Chiefs and Eagles kicked off later in the evening. Both were needed wins in their respective conference races.

The Lady Bears' 71-66 win came at Illinois State, which is in first place in the Missouri Valley Conference, to put them firmly in the mix for the conference title during the first year of head coach Beth Cunningham.

The men's basketball game was a bit too close for comfort against last-place Evansville but late-game heroics helped the Bears avoid an upset and win 66-60.

Lady Bears stay in MVC title mix by beating first-place Illinois State on the road

Missouri State made it known that it is in the Missouri Valley Conference title race after a 71-66 win at Illinois State on Sunday afternoon. It finished off a sweep of the weekend that included Friday's 74-64 win over Bradley.

Now winners of seven in a row, the Lady Bears (16-7, 11-3) are alone in third place in the Valley standings and are a half-game behind second-place Northern Iowa and a full game behind Illinois State.

The win over the Redbirds saw four players score in double-digits with Aniya Thomas scoring a team-high 15 points. Indya Green scored 14 points and grabbed 13 boards.

Illinois State was limited to just 34.5% from the field although it did get 30 points from former Drury standout Paige Robinson who was 9 of 19 from the field. Through the first 20 minutes, the Redbirds only made 8 of 29 shots.

The Redbirds only led for 1:44 of the game which came in the second quarter. The Lady Bears led by as many as 14 with 5:20 left in the game but they only made one shot from the field from then on out and had to make it up from the free throw line.

The Redbirds went on a 9-0 run that brought the game within five with 2:47 left but the Lady Bears held them off by making their shots from the line. ISU made it 69-66 with about seven seconds left but Sydney Wilson made a pair of free throws to put the game on ice.

With six games to go in the regular season, the Lady Bears will hope for a little bit of help now that they have split their season series with the Redbirds but their own schedule won't be easy. They return home on Friday for a 6 p.m. game against Murray State before hosting Belmont, which beat MSU earlier in the season, on Sunday at 2 p.m.

The most notable stretch of the Lady Bears' schedule will come when they go to Iowa for their two games at Drake on March 2 and at Northern Iowa on March 4. The Lady Bears beat them both at Great Southern Bank Arena in late January.

Chance Moore saves the day for Missouri State men's basketball at Evansville

Playing at the same time in Evansville, the men's basketball team got a scare from the MVC's last-place team but it got late heroics once again from Chance Moore.

With Evansville up 57-56, Moore knocked down his first of three 3's on three-straight possessions to help lift the Bears over the Purple Aces. A 66-60 win is the Bears' second in a row and was one they desperately needed.

The Bears are still alone in sixth place in the MVC standings after every other team in the MVC played on Saturday but they created some distance between themselves and the seventh- and eighth-place teams while also staying within striking distance for a top-four seed and bye at Arch Madness along with the outside chance of making a claim at the MVC title with four games to go.

MSU had a 10-point lead with 10:06 to go but Evansville held it to just a point over the next six minutes. A Gage Bobe shot with 4:24 left gave the Aces a two-point lead. They went back and forth for the remainder until Moore's clutch shots combined with free throws from Clay and Damien Mayo helped the Bears avoid the upset.

It wasn't the type of performance you would have wanted to see from the Bears, who turned the ball over 18 times, but they got the win nonetheless. They had a solid defensive game while holding the Purple Aces to 39.1% from the field with Antoine Smith Jr. scoring 16 points.

The Bears shot a little better from the floor while going 42.6% from the field with Alston Mason leading the way with 18 points. Donovan Clay added 17 points and five rebounds.

Missouri State (14-12, 10-6) will stay on the road and will go to first-place Bradley on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game. They then host Northern Iowa (Saturday, 3 p.m.) and Murray State (Feb. 21, 6 p.m.) before closing the regular season out on Feb. 26 at Indiana State.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.