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Missouri State

Reggie Scurry

Dakota Trip Sets Two Quality Opponents Up for Bears

November 30, 2017

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAMES 9-10 - Missouri State Bears (6-2) vs. South Dakota State Jackrabbits (7-2) & NDSU Bison (3-4)
Date and Time Saturday, Dec. 2, 7:00 p.m. - vs. South Dakota State (at Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Monday, Dec. 4, 7:00 p.m. - at North Dakota State
Location SDSU Game - Stanford Pentagon (3,250), Sioux Falls, S.D.
NDSU Game - Scheels Center (5,700), Fargo, N.D.
Tickets South Dakota State Game | North Dakota State game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television KOZL (Don West, Ray Giacoletti) | MSU Television Network | ESPN3 G1 | ESPN3 G2
Series South Dakota State leads series vs. MSU, 3-2
Missouri State is tied in the series vs North Dakota State, 1-1
Live Stats SDSU Game  | NDSU Game
Game Notes Missouri State | South Dakota State | North Dakota St. | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears return to JQH Arena on Friday, Dec. 8 to play Hampton at 7 p.m. | Tickets

Missouri State is embarking on a five-day trip to the Dakotas that will feature a neutral-site game against South Dakota State on Saturday (7 p.m.) at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, before a rematch Monday evening in Fargo against North Dakota State (7 p.m.).

Series History
  • MSU has an extensive history against most of the Summit League, but particularly South Dakota State, which leads the Bears 3-2 all-time. The last three meetings between the clubs (1969, 1970 and 1973) all came in the NCAA Division II Regionals with the Jackrabbits winning two of the three.  The Bears also split home-and-home games with SDSU in 1960 and 1961 but have never played the Jacks on a neutral floor.
  • This will be the third meeting in two seasons between the Bears and Bison. Last season, MSU scored 24 points off 15 NDSU turnovers in a 64-50 win at JQH Arena (11/27/16) with Alize Johnson scoring 17 points and snagging 10 rebounds. Earlier this season at JQH (11/17/17), Johnson posted another double-double with 23 points and 20 rebounds, but the Bison scored 30 points in the paint to escape with a 57-54 win in Springfield. The clubs have never met in Fargo.

The Ten Count
  • Missouri State is embarking on a five-day trip to the Dakotas that will feature a neutral-site game against South Dakota State on Saturday in Sioux Falls, before a rematch Monday evening in Fargo against North Dakota State.
  • Since MSU's loss to North Dakota State on Nov. 17, the Bears are shooting nearly 75 percent from the free throw line. In the five games in that span, MSU is 71-for-95 (.747) at the stripe.
  • The Bears are 4-0 with J.T. Miller (Sr., Clinton, N.C.) in the starting lineup. He is up to 1,012 career points (91 games).
  • Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) is just 1 blocked shot behind Ed Liliensiek (1977-81) for the No. 2 spot on the program's career list. Church is up to 143 career rejections, just 24 behind MSU career leader Danny Moore (1996-99).
  • Missouri State is playing North Dakota State for the third time in two seasons, but will be playing South Dakota State for the first time since the 1973 NCAA Division II Regionals in Springfield (3/9/73), an 85-74 Bears' win at McDonald Arena.
  • Over the last six games, Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) is averaging 9.2 points per game -- all off the bench.
  • Obediah Church needs 2 assists for 100 in his career, while J.T. Miller needs 1 steal for 100 in his career.
  • The Bears enter the weekend with the No. 18 national ranking in offensive rebound percentage (41.7). Stephen F. Austin (50.0) is the national leader, while Valparaiso (44.4) leads the Missouri Valley Conference.
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) is coming off a career-high 20-point effort in MSU's win over Colorado State on Tuesday in which he dropped in three 3-pointers off the bench. His streak of consecutive made free throws (Jan. 24 to Nov. 28) was snapped at 24 straight.
  • The Bears are ranked 21st nationally in field goal percentage defense (.369). Just two of MSU's first eight opponents have eclipsed 40 percent shooting (Georgia Southern and Manhattan) with no team shooting better than 44 percent.
  • Ryan Kreklow is just 8 3-pointers away from 100 for his career (68 games). He would be the 15th Bear to achieve that milestone.
  • Two MSU players -- Alize Johnson (Sr., Williamsport, Pa.) and Jarred Dixon (Jr., Kansas City, Mo.) are approaching 600 career points. Johnson (41g) is 10 points shy of the milestone, while Dixon (71g) is 22 points from 600.

Head Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 94-108 (.465) in his seventh season at MSU and 96-131 (.423) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 45-63 in MVC games (30-24 at home, 15-39 on the road), 4-6 in MVC Tournament games and 45-39 against all non-conference foes (30-13 at JQH Arena, 11-14 away and 4-12 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 60-37 at home, 26-53 on the road, and 8-18 at neutral sites. He has never coached against SDSU and is 1-1 all-time against NDSU.
  • The 46-year-old Lusk took the reins as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including his last three as associate head coach there.  Now in his 17th season in the coaching profession, Lusk has previous assistant coaching stops at Southwestern Illinois (1996-97), Missouri Southern (1999-2002) and Southern Illinois (2003-04) in addition to a one-year head coaching stint at (Div. III) Dubuque (2002-03). Lusk has played or coached in 10 NCAA Tournaments.
  • Lusk finished third in the MVC Coach of the Year voting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award that same year. He was also named one of the Top 25 high-major assistants by FoxSports.com in 2010, and CollegeSportsMadness.com named him MVC coach of the year in 2012. He is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame after scoring 2,743 points during a highly-touted prep career at Wesclin High in New Baden, Ill. He went on to play 107 college games at Iowa and Southern Illinois, earning All-MVC second-team honors in 1994 for the Salukis.
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