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Missouri State

Reggie Scurry

Hungry Bears Host Perennial Valley Power UNI

January 02, 2018

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 16 - Missouri State Bears (12-3, 2-0 MVC) vs. Northern Iowa Panthers (8-6, 0-2 MVC)
Date and Time Thursday, January 4, 2018 | 8:00 p.m.
Location JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo.
Tickets UNI Game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television CBS Sports Network (Brent Stover, Bob Wenzel)
Series Missouri State leads 43-31 | Last Meeting: MSU 70, UNI 64 (3/3/17)
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | UNI | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears begin a two-game road swing Sunday at Illinois State (1 p.m.) before traveling to Evansville on Jan. 10 (7 p.m.) | Tickets for UNI Game
Promotions All bleacher tickets for the UNI game are just $5 at JQH Arena Box Office

Missouri State takes on long-time rival Northern Iowa in a key Missouri Valley Conference game at JQH Arena, Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.

Series History
  • Missouri State leads the all-time series between the teams, 43-31. The Bears are 22-13 at home against the Panthers, but just 2-7 against UNI at JQH Arena.  The Bears have won three of the last five matchups overall, including two of three last season.
  • Last season the Bears took the Valley opener over UNI, 68-64 at McLeod Center (12/28/16) with Ryan Kreklow sinking four straight foul shots in the last 14 seconds to seal the win. Dequon Miller scored 17 points for MSU, while Alize Johnson added 12 points and 10 boards. Jeremy Morgan scored 28 for UNI. In the rematch in Springfield (2/12/17), Morgan hit 5 threes and scored a game-high 18 points in a 55-52 UNI victory. The Bears dominated the boards, 41-24, but shot just 36 percent from the field. Jarred Dixon and Miller scored 12 apiece for MSU. Finally, in the MVC Tournament quarterfinals in St. Louis (3/2/17), the Bears upset third-seeded UNI, 60-54, behind 20 points and 17 rebounds by Johnson and a 10-for-10 effort at the line by Dixon. MSU finished with a 50-25 rebounding edge.

The Ten Count
  • Alize Johnson (Sr., Williamsport, Pa.) has reeled off three straight double-doubles as part of MSU's three-game win streak. His longest career stretch of consecutive double-doubles is four games from Jan. 15-24, 2017. His 9 double-doubles this season rank 6th nationally and No. 2 among Division I players under 6-foot-10.
  • The last time MSU started off 3-0 in The Valley was 2010-11 when the Bears won their first 7 MVC contests en route to a 15-3 mark and regular-season title. This is the fourth time Paul Lusk has led the Bears to a 2-0 start in league play.
  • Bears' head coach Paul Lusk recorded his 100th victory as Bears' head coach Sunday with the club's win at Valparaiso. Lusk is just the seventh head coach at Missouri State to reach the century mark in victories and would match Arthur Briggs (1913-23) for sixth place on that list with six more wins.
  • The Bears held their 10th opponent of the season under 40 percent field goal shooting in Sunday's win at Valparaiso (.348). For the season, MSU opponents are shooting a collective .380 with just one foe breaching the 50-percent standard. MSU enters the week ranked 15th nationally in FG percentage defense. UNI (.385) ranks 21st.
  • MSU has out-rebounded 14 of 15 opponents this season with double-figure offensive rebounds in 13 games. MSU ranks 21st nationally in rebound margin (+8.3). The Bears have matched or out-rebounded 40 of their last 48 foes.
  • Jarrid Rhodes (Sr., Palmetto, Fla.) matched a career-high with five 3-pointers in MSU's first win at Valparaiso since 1990. His game-high 15 points marked just the fifth time in Rhodes' 48 career games that he has led MSU in scoring.
  • Johnson eclipsed 500 career rebounds in Sunday's win at Valpo, making him the 31st Bear to reach that milestone and just the sixth two-year player to do so. He has led MSU in rebounding 37 times and reached double figures in rebounds 30 times during his 48-game career. He leads the MVC and ranks 14th nationally at 10.6 rebounds per game.
  • MSU is 107-48 (.690) all-time at JQH Arena. The only current Valley team with a winning record at The Q is UNI, which is 7-2 all-time at the facility. Other than Illinois State (4), no other MVC team has won more than 3 times at JQH.
  • Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) is averaging just 15.9 minutes per game -- all off the bench -- but has scored 8 or more points in 13 of 15 games, scoring in double figures 7 times. His .562 FG percentage ranks 5th in the MVC.
  • The Bears are the first Valley team to 12 wins this season and enter Thursday's game with wins in 10 of their last 11.
  • Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) leads the MVC and ranks 52nd nationally with 2.1 blocked shots per game.

Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 100-109 (.478) in his seventh season at MSU and 102-132 (.436) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 47-63 in MVC games (31-24 at home, 16-39 on the road), 4-6 in MVC Tournament games and 49-40 against all non-conference foes (32-13 at JQH Arena, 12-15 away and 5-12 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 63-37 at home, 27-54 on the road, and 9-18 at neutral sites. Lusk is 4-9 all-time against UNI, including a 2-4 mark at JQH Arena.
  • 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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