Roaring back from a 22-point deficit, the Missouri State basketball Bears hustled, muscled and shot their way past the Winthrop Eagles 73-69 in non-conference action Sunday afternoon in Rock Hill, S.C. The Bears ended the 24-game home win streak of a Winthrop team coming off a 29-win, NCAA Tournament second-round season in 2006-07.

    The Bears, now 4-1, notched their fourth win in a row and first road victory of the campaign as they upended a Winthrop team which had won 47 of its previous 48 games at home, dating back to the start of the 2004-05 season. The Bears’ win dropped the Eagles to 3-2 this season and avenged a BracketBusters loss to Winthrop in Springfield last February.

It didn’t come easily. Winthrop amassed a 17-point bulge midway in the first half and led by 22 at 43-21 with 2:37 remaining before halftime. The Bears closed the half with an 8-2 run that cut the Eagles’ lead to 45-29 at the break.

After Winthrop opened the second half with a trey to push its margin back to 19, Missouri State, getting treys from Dale Lamberth, Spencer Laurie and Shane Laurie, ran off 11 points in a row to cut the gap to 48-40 with 15:43 to play.

The Bears pulled to within six at 54-48 before the Eagles answered with a 6-0 run to extend the lead to 60-48 with 8:58 remaining. From there, it was all Bears. Drew Richards got a three-point play, Spencer Laurie hit two free throws, Deven Mitchell had a layup, Lamberth cut it to two with a long trey and Chris Cooks ended the 13-0 run with a three-point play to put MSU in front 61-60 with 4:32 left.

Winthrop retook the lead for the last time on a three-point play by Taj McCullough but Cooks answered with another three-point play of his own. Baskets by Richards and Lamberth put MSU up 68-63 with 2:24 to play and the Eagles whittled that advantage to two with three free throws entering the final minute. Lamberth then got loose for a layup underneath and three more charity tosses pushed MSU up by seven before Winthrop nailed a trey with two seconds left.

The tale of two halves on the scoreboard was reflected in the stats. Winthrop shot .583 (14/24) from the field in the first half but the Bears’ defensive clamps limited the Eagles to .207 (6/29) the second half, for a game figure of .377 (20/53). The Bears were at .318 (7/22) the first half, .536 (15/28) after intermission and .440 (22/50) for the game. MSU beat the Eagles 21-16 on the boards the second half to cut Winthrop’s final rebound margin to 31-30.

Guard Michael Jenkins, who led the Winthrop onslaught against the Bears last February in Springfield with 25 points, fired Sunday’s first-half assault with 18 before he finished with a game-high 23. McCullough added 16 points.

Cooks led the Bears with 19 points, including 14 in the second half. He hit all six of his field goal tries in the contest, including one trey. Mitchell scored 12 points, Lamberth added 11, Spencer Laurie had 10 and Shane Laurie got nine. Lamberth led the game’s rebounders with seven while Justin Fuehrmeyer had four assists and three steals. The Bears hit .840 (21/25) from the foul line for the contest.

Missouri State returns to Springfield Monday and will have a week to prepare for its next action, a Dec. 3 road game at the University of Arkansas.