SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Lindenwood Men's Basketball (8-5, 2-0 OVC) dropped their first game in nearly a month on Tuesday afternoon at Missouri State by a score of 70-65. The Lions battled back after trailing by 12 points at the break, but Lindenwood was unable to tie the game after their first half shooting woes in which they shot 28.57% from the floor. 

In the opening 20 minutes, Jadis Jones led the Lions with seven points. After Jones converted on a layup to put Lindenwood up 14-11 with 11:25 remaining in the first half, the Bears responded with an 11-0 run to grab a 22-14 lead with less than seven minutes to go. Clayton Jackson snapped the Missouri State run with a step back three pointer to cut the Bears lead to 22-17, but Missouri State quickly went on a 5-0 run to push their lead to 10 and took a 12 point lead into the locker room by a score of 34-22. Anias Futrell led the Lions in rebounding with seven, while Jones had five rebounds in the first half. 

In the second half, Missouri State went up by 15 points right away after knocking down a three pointer less than a minute into the half. However, the Black and Gold roared back and cut the lead to five with 16:21 to go as Mekhi Cooper knocked down two three pointers to highlight a 12-2 run following the made three pointer by Missouri State. The two teams went back-and-forth for the remainder of the half with the largest lead being 12 points over the final 16 minutes of play. After the Bears went up by 12 with 5:49 to go in the contest, Dontrez Williams made a couple of hustle plays to spark yet another run for the Lions. Williams got to the free throw line and converted on both free throw attempts to make it a 10 point Missouri State lead with 5:41 to go, and a few plays later recorded a block on the defensive side of the ball, grabbed his own rebound, and went coast to coast to score a basket and drew a foul to cut the deficit to 63-58 with 4:08 to go. Anias Futrell knocked down a mid range jump shot coming out of the under four media timeout and Milos Nenadic went to the free throw line on the next possession to make it a 63-61 game with 2:51 to go, but the Bears limited the Lions to just four points over the final two minutes and knocked down a big three pointer with 47 seconds to go to defeat the Lions 70-65. 

Two Lions scored in double figures as Jadis Jones scored a team-high 16 points in the loss, followed closely behind by Dontrez Williams who scored 15 points, including seven made free throws. Anias Futrell grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in the loss as well, and scored six points. 

Lindenwood will be back at home to start the new year as they host Morehead State and Southern Indiana for their next two OVC contests. Tip off against Morehead State will be on January 1 at 3:30 p.m.