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Missouri State

Jarrid Rhodes

Bears' Rematch with Aces Set for Saturday

February 08, 2018

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 27 - Missouri State Bears (16-10, 6-7 MVC) vs. Evansville Purple Aces (16-10, 6-7 MVC)
Date and Time Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018 | 2:00 p.m.
Location JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo.
Tickets Evansville Game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television ESPN3 (Tom Ladd, Kelby Stuckey)
Series Series tied, 43-43 | Last Meeting:UE 64, MSU 55 (1/10/18) | Box Score
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Evansville | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears travel to Southern Illinois on Wednesday before home games against Drake on Sunday, Feb. 18 and Bradley on Wednesday, Feb. 21 | Drake Tickets | Bradley Tickets
Promotions Upper-level tickets just $5 | Athletics Hall of Fame | Tickets

With three of their next four games at JQH Arena, the Missouri State Bears look to start the stretch run on the right foot with a Saturday afternoon clash with Evansville at 2 p.m. on Hall of Fame Weekend at MSU.

Series History
  • The series between the Bears and Aces is a rich one that dates back to 1959 when Evansville beat MSU in the championship game of the NCAA Division II Tournament. The series is tied, 34-34.
  • The teams split last year with MSU winning in Springfield (Jan. 11) as Dequon Miller scored MSU's last 8 points to lift the Bears to a 55-51 victory. He finished with 13 points, while Jarrid Rhodes dropped in three treys to score 14. Alize Johnson added 9 points and 16 rebounds. Ryan Taylor and Jaylon Brown each scored 19 for UE. In the rematch at Ford Center (Feb. 4), Evansville seniors David Howard and Brown combined for 43 points in a 74-66 Aces win. A trey by Ryan Kreklow with 10:29 to play put MSU ahead 47-46, but UE held MSU scoreless for nearly four minutes in the clutch. Jarred Dixon led the Bears with 16 points off the bench, while Obediah Church tallied 13 points.
  • Earlier this season in Evansville (Jan. 10), Missouri State cut its double-figure deficit down to three with just over a minute to play, but could not catch the Aces, falling 64-55. Alize Johnson led three Bears in double figures with 16 points and 14 rebounds, while Reggie Scurry and Jarrid Rhodes added 10 points apiece. Evansville never trailed and was led by Dru Smith's 15 points, while Dainius Chatkevicius scored 10 points with a team-high 11 rebounds. Box Score
The Ten Count
  • Alize Johnson (Sr., Williamsport, Pa.) needs just 3 points to reach 900 for his two-year career. He would become the 34th player in program history to reach that milestone -- just the fifth two-year player. Johnson enters the weekend ranked 7th nationally in rebounding (11.3), 5th in defensive rebounds (8.2) and 4th in double-doubles (16).
  • The Bears are looking for their 10th home victory of the season, something they have done four times in the previous nine seasons at JQH Arena. MSU has locked up its 47th consecutive winning season at home, dating to 1971-72.
  • Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) needs just 1 more rebound to reach 500 for his career (88g). Church has scored 25 points (8.3 ppg) over the last 3 games and is coming off a game-high 9 rebounds at Indiana State.
  • Led by Church's 20 slams, the Bears have accumulated 56 dunks (2.2 per game) this season. Reggie Scurry (13) and J.T. Miller (10) have helped the Bears match their best dunk total in the last 10 years (56 in 2015-16). Church has 92 career dunks.
  • Jarrid Rhodes (Sr., Palmetto, Fla.) is averaging 10.7 points per game in three previous games against Evansville, all starts. Rhodes is also 8-for-12 (.667) from 3-point range against the Aces.
  • In J.T. Miller's (Sr., Clinton, N.C.) 10 starts this season, the Bears are 8-2 and averaging 75.1 points per game (66.7 when he does not start). He is averaging 10.5 points per game in his last two starts.
  • Jarred Dixon (Jr., Kansas City, Mo.) will be making his 90th career appearance and playing in his 50th MVC game. His 733 career points ranks 66th on Missouri State's career scoring chart.
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) is just 2 triples away from landing in the program's all-time top 10. He has 110 career 3-pointers and would catch Allen Phillips (1998-2000), Dale Lamberth (2005-08) and Dequon Miller (2015-17) for the No. 10 position.
  • Rhodes is just 23 points away from 500 for his career. He would be the sixth player on the 2017-18 MSU roster to eclipse 500 career points, joining Miller (1,137), Johnson (897), Dixon (733), Church (571) and Kreklow (536).
  • Mustafa Lawrence (Fr., Newark, N.J.) is averaging 12.0 points per game in his 2 starts. He posted a team-high 19 points at Loyola in his first career start last Saturday with five 3-pointers.
  • Senior Tanveer Bhullar (Etobicoke, Ontario) is 5-of-7 (.714) from the field over the Bears' last 3 games with 8 rebounds. He is coming off a career-high 4 blocks at Indiana State.
Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 104-116 (.473) in his seventh season at MSU and 106-139 (.433) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 51-70 in MVC games (34-26 at home, 17-44 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 66-39 at home, 29-59 on the road, and 9-18 at neutral sites. Lusk is 4-11 vs. Evansville (3-3 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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