MSU Sports Information - Rick Kindhart

SPRINGFIELD -- Missouri State overcame a second-half surge by Tulsa and won its fifth in a row with an 83-75 victory over the Golden Hurricane on Saturday at JQH Arena in Springfield in a battle of unbeaten teams.

Adam Leonard had a game-high 24 points, a career high, including 9-of-10 at the free throw line to help the Bears to their best scoring outing under coach Cuonzo Martin. Leonard hit seven of eight free throws in the final 1:44 after Tulsa nearly erased a 21-point Bears' lead in the second half.

A break-away dunk by Kyle Weems at the 16:54 mark of the second half extended Missouri State's lead to 55-34, its biggest of the game. However, a 13-3 run by Tulsa over the next five minutes made it a 58-47 game when Ben Uzoh converted a traditional three-point play.

Weems then stepped up big again for the Bears at the 9:49 mark with a three-pointer after Tulsa flirted with cutting its deficit to single digits. Weems' bucket made it 63-50, but a dunk by seven-footer Jerome Jordan, his sixth of the game, and three-pointers by Uzoh and Justin Hurtt made it a nine-point contest, 68-59. Uzoh's then made it a seven-point game on a jumper at the 7:17 mark.

After a jumper by Caleb Patterson with 8:06 to go, the Bears would not score another field goal, making 15-of-21 at the line down the stretch. The most pivotal free throws came from Leonard who made one of two with 1:44 to go after an Uzoh three-pointer made it a 72-69 game, but he then iced the next six in a row, while Tulsa native Will Creekmore burned his hometown squad with four straight charity shots and a key defensive rebound in the final 25 seconds.

During the final eight minutes, Tulsa committed 12 personal fouls and was 5-for-8 from the field, including three field goals from beyond the arc.

Patterson also posted a career high with 17 points for the Bears after drawing the game's toughest defensive assignment in guarding Jordan. Weems added 13 and Creekmore scored 9 for the Bears who committed just five turnovers in the game and tallied 20 assists.

Tulsa (5-1) got 22 points from Jordan, 20 from Uzoh and 16 by Hurtt who was 4-of-7 from three-point range.
The Bears also fired at a 51.9-percent clip (28-of-54) while converting 9-of-16 (.563) from three-point range.
Missouri State will play its first road game Wednesday at 7:35 p.m. when it travels to Arkansas-Little Rock (2-4).
In the first half, Patterson scored 10 points off the bench, while Adam Leonard scored nine to help the Bears to a 42-30 halftime lead.

The Bears built a 10-point lead early, 14-4 on a traditional three-point play by Jermaine Mallett at the 16:05 mark, but Tulsa stormed back and built a two-point lead, 23-21, to close out a 13-2 run, on a dunk by seven-footer Jerome Jordan.

But MSU's big men answered the bell. Creekmore and Leonard accounted for 10 of the Bears' next 14 points, including eight by Patterson who was 5-for-7 from the field in the first half.

Justin Fuehrmeyer played his first six minutes of the 2009-10 season and made an immediate impact with two points, three rebounds and four assists. Michael Porter also made his MSU debut, nailing a three-pointer in his first college basket and collecting a rebound and an assist before leaving the game with two fouls in the early going.