ST. LOUIS, Mo.--After a close first half, the Shockers controlled the second against Missouri State to fly past the Bears, 59-46, and move on to the Quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

A nearly deadlocked first half quickly evolved into a Shocker-dominated second. Both teams fought relentlessly to play their way into quarterfinals of the Valley tournament, but it was the Shockers' fight that proved more insistent.

A season-high nine blocks for the Shockers led the defensive effort that held the Bears to a season-low 29 percent shooting. Three Shockers scored in double figures on Thursday night, including freshman guard Toure' Murry who led the team with 16 points and six rebounds. Senior forward Ramon Clemente followed that effort with 12 points, and sophomore J.T. Durley added 10 points and six rebounds.

Missouri State's Kyle Weems led all scorers with 20 points, 16 of which came in the first half before the Shocker defense was able to lock him down in the second half. No other Bear scored more than six points as the Bears made just 16-of-55 attempts against the Shockers.

The Bears quickly cut the Shockers' four-point halftime lead to one in the opening minute of the second half. WSU responded with a 4-0 run en route to taking the largest lead for either team, 36-29. Helping themselves to keep the lead, the Shocker defense held the Bears to a 1-of-9 shooting start in the first four minutes of the half.

In the meantime, the Shockers used nearly perfect free throw shooting and a pair of timely jumpers from freshman David Kyles to push their lead to nine approaching the midway point of the second half, 44-35.

A poor-shooting spell haunted both teams until Durley and Murry sank back-to-back buckets to push the Shocker lead into double digits, 49-38 to grab control of the game with five minutes to play.

“I felt like tonight I just had to step up for my team,” Murry said. “Everybody wants to play another round, and I felt like if I stepped up then we'd have a better chance of winning.”

Now desperate, the Bears' fouling moved the Shockers into the double-bonus. The Shocks took advantage, hitting 18-of-21 free throws to propel their lead to 15 at the two-minute mark, 56-41?and never looked back.

“Tonight we played very well defensively,” Coach Gregg Marshall said. “Toure' played well offensively, and we played well enough offensively to secure a relatively easy last five or six minutes of the game.”

In the first half, Weems scored the Bears' first seven points to give his team an early lead, 7-4. Despite Missouri State's 50 percent accuracy from the floor and a slight lead, the Bears were never able to pull ahead of the Shockers in the opening nine minutes of the game.

The Shockers tied the score with a three from sophomore Aaron Ellis before giving up a quick bucket to return the lead to the Bears, setting the pace for the back-and-forth first half. Leading the Shockers, Durley knocked down his sixth point of the game to put his team ahead, 13-11.

Following the trend, the lead was short lived when Weems hit his second three of the game. Weems had 12 of the Bears' 15 points by the seven-minute mark.

A pair of free throws by Ellis coupled with a lay up from Clemente gave the Shocks their largest lead with less than two minutes before the break, 28-22. Although Weems cut the deficit, the Shocks took the lead into halftime before ultimately taking the victory and the opportunity to play in round two.

The No. 7 seed Shockers take on the No. 2 Creighton Bluejays in the quarterfinals at the Scottrade Center Friday night at 6 p.m.

-Wichita State-