After the Bears’ late rally fell short against Southern Cal on Thursday night, Missouri State hoped to avoid the fate of most Sin City tourists — going home empty-handed. The opportunity to avenge a two-point loss at DePaul in November only upped the ante for Paul Lusk’s squad.
Alize Johnson’s double-double powered the Bears (9-4) to a 69-58 win over DePaul (7-6) in the 3rd-place game of the Las Vegas Classic at Orleans Arena.
“As I told our guys, we are retaking a final that we flunked against DePaul,” Lusk said on his post-game radio show. “Let’s see, are we better this time?