The Missouri State Bears are again looking to find a way to get back to .500 in Missouri Valley Conference play when they host the Indiana State Sycamores Tuesday in a 7:05 p.m. league battle in Hammons Student Center. It’s the first meeting of the season between the Bears and Sycamores and Missouri State’s fourth MVC home test. The Bears dropped their second straight MVC road game Saturday in a 65-54 decision at league-leading Drake and are 2-3 in the Valley after having lost one of three in last week’s homestand. The Bears opened at home with a 91-80 comeback win over Bradley (1/2), suffered through a woeful first half in a 50-49 loss to Creighton (1/5), and then jumped out of the blocks early to roll past Wichita State 71-47 (1/8). The Bears’ had a 79-71 loss at Southern Illinois Dec. 30 in the league opener for both teams.

 The Bears have opened their Valley slate after six busy weeks of non-league action. The Bears played right up to a short Christmas break when they split four games in the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic, beating Texas-Pan American 64-53 (12/17) and Bethune-Cookman 63-49 at home (12/19) before losing to Alabama 81-73 (12/22) in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in the semifinals and falling to Purdue 72-70 (12/23) in the third-place game. Coupled with a 66-54 loss at Utah (12/15), the Bears had five games in nine days right after fall semester final exams. The Bears played twice a week and a half before Utah, losing 70-51 at Arkansas (12/3) and beat UNC Wilmington 73-66 at home (12/5). MSU opened its season with a 57-53 loss at Toledo, rolled past Harding (86-67) and UNC Greensboro (79-52) Nov. 16-17 to win the Price Cutter Classic at Hammons Student Center. The Bears then turned back Saint Louis (60-56) at home Nov. 21, and won at Winthrop (73-69) Nov. 25 before the two-game split to open December.

 Last Game: The Bears used most of the second half erasing an 11-point Drake scoring burst to start the half, and, after the Bears finally pulled even, let Drake have an 11-0 run to end the game, resulting in a 65-54 MVC win for the league-leading Bulldogs Saturday in Des Moines. It was a school record 13th win in a row for Drake as the Bulldogs, picked for ninth in the Valley preseason poll, climbed to 14-1 for the year. The Valley’s leading three-point shooting team, Drake buried five of its first six treys to start the second half as the ’Dogs quickly overcame a 30-28 MSU halftime edge. The Bulldogs built a 10-point lead at 46-36 before the Bears started back. For the second game in a row, Dale Lamberth came off the bench and fired the MSU attack. He scored 11 of the Bears’ next 15 points, including a three-point play with 4:55 left to get MSU even at 51-51. Drake’s Klayton Korver and the Bears’ Spencer Laurie traded treys to make it 54-54 with 4:18 to play. The Bears didn’t score again as they missed their last 10 shots while Drake got two layups and seven free throws for its final margin. Drake went up 10-4 before Deven Mitchell brought MSU even at 10-10. The lead changed hands four times before the Bears broke from a 21-21 deadlock for a 28-21 lead before the Bulldogs closed to within two at intermission. The Drake win was the Bulldogs’ first over Missouri State in five years and ended a 10-game losing streak to the Bears. The Bears dropped their seventh game in eight starts away from home. The Bulldogs’ second half long-range surge of .462 (6/13) came after DU hit just .267 (4/15) threes the first half. MSU hit 2-of-9 threes the first half and 1-of-11 after the break. The Bears’ two-point halftime lead was sparked by an 18-10 intermission rebound margin, but the Bulldogs stormed the boards the second half and outrebounded MSU for the night, 31-29. Korver, Jonathan Cox and Leonard Houston combined for nine of Drake’s 10 three-pointers in the game as Korver finished with 19 points while Houston got 16 and Cox added 13. Lamberth led the Bears with 19 and Mitchell scored 10.

 Missouri State is in its 96th season of intercollegiate basketball and the Bears are coming off a 22-11 season which saw them finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season race with a 12-6 mark, reach the semifinals of the State Farm MVC Tourney and play in the National Invitation Tourney. It was the Bears’ third straight NIT appearance. This is the Bears’ third year as Missouri State (previously Southwest Missouri State).

  The four-game week of the Las Vegas Classic in ended a busy Missouri State non-league slate in which the Bears visited five states before Christmas. Starting with the trip to Drake, the Bears have three of four on the road, with the home game vs. Indiana State and trips to Evansville and Wichita State to close out the month. The team’s only remaining non-league test is an O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters home game Feb. 22 or 23, with the opponent to be announced in early February.

 Hammons Student Center Farewell, JQH here next year: The 2007-08 season is the Bears’ 32nd and final year of basketball in Hammons Student Center. The new $67 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena is being constructed just east of HSC and will be ready for the opening of the 2008-09 Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears basketball season.

 The Coaches: Barry Hinson (Oklahoma State, ’83) is 161-109 in his ninth season at MSU and 197-132 in his 11th year overall as a college head coach. He’s 13-3 vs. ISU. Hinson is fifth on the all-time MSU coaching win list, needs three wins to catch Eddie Matthews for fourth, needs three wins for 200 as a college head coach and is the sixth head coach to post 100 wins at MSU.

 Kevin McKenna (Creighton, ’81) is 9-6 in his first year at Drake and 98-39 in his fifth year overall as a college head coach. He’s 0-0 vs. Missouri State. McKenna was an assistant at Creighton for nine years before taking the Sycamores’ post this year.

 Series Record: MSU leads, 32-15. The Bears have won four in a row and 12 of the last 13 games against Indiana State in a series which began with MSU NAIA tournament wins over the Sycamores on the Bears’ way to back-to-back national titles in 1951-52 and 1952-53.

 Indiana State: ISU emphatically stamped itself as one of a number of surprise teams with new coaches in the MVC this year with a four-game winning streak as the Sycamores began league play which moved ISU from 4-5 to 8-5 got got the mores off to a 3-0 league start. Indiana State got pounded by 25 at Drake but bounced back for a double-overtime win over defending league champ SIU Saturday in Terre Haute. ISU earlier had league wins at Evansville and at home against Creighton and UNI. The Sycamores have been winning and losing with some decisiveness as only four of their 15 games have been decided by fewer than 10 points despite the fact that ISU has only eight points more than its foes for the season. Sophomore Marico Stinson leads the team in scoring at 12.5 with Gabe Moore at 10.8.

 Affiliation: Missouri State is in its 26th year in Division I and 18th in the MVC. The Bears are 497-289 in Div. I and 185-123 in regular season Valley play since 1990. MSU has been second five times and third five times in its best MVC finishes. MSU had eight straight 20-win, postseason tourney teams (1986-93), with three NIT clubs and five NCAA teams in that span. The Bears returned to postseason play in the 1997 NIT, and in 1999 had their first NCAA trip since 1992, advancing to the Sweet 16. The Bears upset Wisconsin and Tennessee and fell to top-ranked Duke in the East regional semifinals. MSU got to the second round of the NIT in 2000 and 2005 and reached the NIT quarterfinals in 1986, 1993 and 2006.

 All-Time: The UNI game 1/11/04 was the 1,400th win in Bears’ basketball history. The 1,300th was 11/18/98 at Missouri and the Bears’ 2,000th game was 1/13/99 vs. Bradley. This is the 96th season of Bear basketball. MSU is 1,481-796 (.649) all-time; 27th among Division I schools in all-time wins and 13th in all-time winning percentage. The Bears have had 76 winning seasons, 15 losing years, four seasons at .500, 26 years with 20 or more wins, and 29 postseason teams. Missouri State first played intercollegiate basketball in 1908-09. This is the 100th year since the Bears first played but there were not teams in the 1911-12, 1912-13, 1943-44 or 1944-45 seasons.

n A-B-C Seniors Shine: The Bears’ three senior co-captains last year were all four-year lettermen and three or four-year starters with well over 100 MSU games each. Blake Ahearn averaged 15.4 points to lead Bear scoring and collect his second straight all-MVC first team nod and selection as MSU Coors Player of the Year. His 1,677 points rank seventh all-time at MSU. He finished third in the nation in FT accuracy but his four-year .946 figure set a new NCAA career mark. Nathan Bilyeu led rebounding at 5.4 a game and wound up 15th in career rebounding (628) and 29th in career points (939). Tyler Chaney earned the Guy Thompson Award for the program and averaged 10.3 points, reached fifth in career three-pointers, and 28th in all-time scoring (957).

n League honors for ex-Chiefs: In addition to Ahearn’s all-MVC first team selection last season, Bears’ junior forward Deven Mitchell was named the Valley’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2006-07 and MSU junior guard Spencer Laurie was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. Tyler Chaney drew all-MVC honorable mention and Dale Lamberth joined Mitchell on the all-bench team.

nAhearn to NBA Development League:

Blake Ahearn, the all-time leading free throw shooter in Division I history, has begun his first professional season with the National Basketball Association Development League Dakota Wizards, Bismarck, N.D.

  Ahearn, a fourth round pick in the 10-round D League draft, joins a Dakota team which is the reigning D League champ. Ahearn has four 20-point games, is averaging 13.0 for the team’s first 19 (12-7) games and is at .932 (69/74) from the foul line.

 Ahearn led MSU in scoring and was an MVC all-league first teamer as a junior and senior. He set school and Valley records for consecutive free throws made with 60 in a row once each in his freshman and sophomore seasons. His .975 free throw percentage (117/120) as a freshman set a new Division I single season percentage mark, and his final figure of .946 (435/460) established a new NCAA career record. Ahearn graduated from MSU in August with a degree in marketing.

 22 straight years: The Missouri State men’s and women’s basketball teams have had notable Division I success, with one or both having advanced to postseason play 22 years in a row. The men’s team played in the NIT in 1986, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and in the NCAA in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1999. The women’s team was in the NCAA from 1991 through 1996, 1998 through 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006; in the WNIT 2002 and 2005, winning the 2005 WNIT title.

BruiNotes:

Personnel:MSU presently has a 14-player squad, with seven lettermen and two starters back from last year. Squadman Ryan Jehle is a redshirt freshman. Chris Cooks is a junior transfer from Redlands (Okla.) JC, Wade Knapp is a junior transfer from Dodge City (Kan.) CC, and, of the three true freshmen, Kyle Weems and David Cline are redshirting this season. Guard Tomas Brock, a freshman from Mt. Vernon, Mo., had been participating as a redshirt but joined the active roster to add more depth in the backcourt following the Dec. 9 injury to Lamont Austin. Transfer Will Creekmore has just joined the squad and will be eligible in December of 2008

nLamberth graduates: Senior forward Dale Lamberth was one of 23 Missouri State student-athletes in a graduating class of 1,264 who received MSU degrees at Fall Semester Commencement exercises Dec. 14 at Hammons Student Center. Lamberth, a recreation and leisure studies major, was with the Bears in Utah when his degree was conferred.

nCreekmore transfers: Freshman forward-center Will Creekmore has left the basketball program at Boston University to transfer to Missouri State for the start of the 2008 spring semester. Creekmore, a 6-foot-9, 235-pounder from Tulsa (Okla.) Thomas Edison High, will sit out a full year to regain his athletic eligibility and will have three seasons to compete for the Bears when he becomes eligible after the 2008 fall semester at MSU.

  Creekmore played in four of Boston’s first eight games this season. He averaged 12 minutes a game and totaled 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Terriers of coach Dennis Wolff.

  At Edison, Creekmore was a four-year varsity starter for the Eagles of head coach Michael Parish. Creekmore won all-state honors as a senior. He was a two-time Tulsa World All-Metro pick and a three-time all-district and all-conference selection. He averaged 23 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks per game his final year, shooting 68 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point range. He was the state’s leading scorer and rebounder in Class 5A as a senior and the state’s top rebounder as a junior.

nBears add three prep standouts: A Missouri prepster and two high schoolers from out of state have committed to join the Missouri State basketball program for 2008-09.

  The trio includes Damen Bell-Holter, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound center from Ketchikan (Alaska) High; Ken Holdman, a 6-foot, 170-pound guard from Tulsa (Okla.) East Central High; and Isaiah Rhine, a 6-10, 225-pound center from Versailles (Mo.) High.

  Bell-Holter is in his third season as a starter for the Ketchikan Kings of Coach Doug Nausid. KHS knocked off Juneau last year in the regional finals to go to the state tournament and Bell-Holter was a first team all-conference choice in the Alaska Southeast League.

 Holdman is a two-year starter at East Central for Coach Brian Morgan and his team also reached the state tournament in 2007, losing in the state finals to Carl Albert in Class 5A. East Central also won the Green County Conference title and Holdman was a second team all-conference, second team all-district and Oklahoma all-star selection.

  Rhine is also looking to make his senior season his third year as a starter for the Versailles Tigers of coach Kent Chamberlain. Rhine won all-conference, all-district, and all-area laurels as a sophomore and junior and was a Class 3 all-state second team selection last year. He has also played AAU basketball for two summers for the Missouri Titans.

nPrice Cutter History: The Bears’ win in this year’s Price Cutter Classic was MSU’s fifth in a row and 15th in the 21-year history of the event. MSU is 36-6 all-time in Price Cutter play, with 15 titles and six runner-up finishes (1987-90-93-99-01-02). The Bears won the meet five years in a row (1994-98) in their previous longest stretch of titles, and matched that with this year’s classic win (2003-07). Blake Ahearn, Tyler Chaney and Nathan Bilyeu last year joined Ben Kandlbinder (94-98) and Ryan Bettenhausen (95-99) as the only Bears to play on four Price Cutter title teams and Deven Mitchell and Drew Richards joined that select group this year. The selection of Richards to the all-tourney team this year was a repeat for him from last year. Kandlbinder is the only player to be on the all-tourney team four times and Scott Brakebill (99-00-01) was the only other three-time pick until Ahearn (04-05-06) and Bilyeu (04-05-06) last year. Ahearn (04-05), Kandlbinder (94-95) and Danny Moore (96-98) are the only players to win tourney MVP honors twice.

nMVP Deven: Deven Mitchell had new career highs of 24 points in the first game of the Price Cutter Classic and then matched that total the second night. He averaged 8.0 rebounds for the weekend, had five steals and five blocked shots and hit .727 (16/22) from the field and .889 (16/18) from the line to dominate all-tournament selection and Most Valuable Player voting in the meet.

nBears come up big on national TV: The Bears were on fire from the opening tip and in charge for 40 minutes on their way to a nationally-televised (ESPN2) 71-47 MVC win over Wichita State (1/8) in Hammons. Senior forward Dale Lamberth, coming off the bench for the first time this season after 15 straight starting assignments, lit up the Shockers as he hit 10-of-18 from the field, including 6-of-9 from three-point range, for a career-high 27 points. MSU reached double digits in three-point field goals (11/23) for the third time in four games. The Bears further aided their cause with a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line. The Bears got seven treys the first half as they ran out to leads of 13-0, 16-2 and 29-10. MSU led 36-22 at the half, expanded that to 20 points four minutes into the second half, and led by as many as 27 three times late in the contest.

nDale’s big night: The 27 points by Dale Lamberth vs. Wichita State (1/8) marked the highest point total for a Missouri State player since Blake Ahearn had 32 vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (12/3/05) and the most points for a Bears’ non-starter since Allen Phillips came off the bench to score 28 vs. Creighton in the semifinals of the MVC Tourney (2/28/99).

nLowest in HSC: The 15-point first half against Creighton (1/5) was the Bears’ lowest scoring half in a game since they got 14 points at Purdue on Dec. 23, 1991, and their lowest scoring half in their 32-year history in HSC, covering 486 regular season games. The Bears’ previous Hammons scoring low for a half was 19 against Arkansas on Dec. 18, 1983.

nMakin’ the freebies: The Bears hit all seven of their free throws at Drake (1/12) after a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line vs. Wichita State (1/8). It marked the first time since Jan. 21-26, 1985, vs. UWGB and Cleveland State that a Bears’ team put two perfect free throw shooting games back-to-back.

nShootin’ the treys: In hitting .616 (11/18) from three-point range at SIU (12/30) while hitting 8-of-23 two-point tries, the Bears had more threes than twos in a contest for just the third time in 665 games since the three-point field goal was added in 1986-87. The other such occasions included MSU school records of 14 threes (with 12 two-pointers) at UNC Wilmington 12/9/06 and 14 threes (with 11 two-pointers) at Drake 2/18/95. The Bears came back with 10 treys in the win over Bradley (1/2), marking their first two games with 10 or more threes this season and the first time they’d put double-digit treys back-to-back in games since doing it twice last year. The Bears popped in 11 threes vs. Wichita State to make it three of four games with double-digit threes.

nNo HSC clean slate: The loss to Creighton was the Bears’ first home defeat of the season ended their last hope for a perfect season in Hammons in what is their final year in HSC before moving to JQH Arena in 2008-09.

nFuehrmeyer hot: Justin Fuehrmeyer had a hot streak from long range, hitting .469 (15/32) over six games at the end of December and the start of January after hitting just one three his first nine outings. At SIU (12/30), he hit a career-best five treys for a career-high 19 points. Fuehrmeyer opened up from long range with the best week of his young Missouri State career in the four games of the Las Vegas Classic. After missing his first nine three-point tries of the season and hitting 1 of his first 17, he hit two vs. UTPA and three each against Alabama and Purdue in Las Vegas for a .500 (8/16) shooting week from long range. His 13 points vs. Purdue were a career-high at the time. Fury’s points came at key spots, with his deep three from the right wing with 2:21 left in the Alabama game giving the Bears their last lead, while his two free throws with half a minute left vs. Purdue gave the Bears their last advantage in that game.

nDeven at the line: Deven Mitchell has made solid and steady improvement at the foul line throughout his MSU career, hiking his season figure more than 50 percentage points each year with the Bears. Mitchell hit a string of 24 in a row in 2006-07, 12th best string on record for Missouri State and one of only three streaks on the top dozen for anyone other than all-time NCAA FT accuracy leader Blake Ahearn. Mitchell made 18 free in a row over five games (Dec. 3-23) before he missed two (of 13) vs. PU. He hit 11-of-11 at SIU (12/30) and 9-of-9 vs. Bradley (1/2) and his first two vs. Creighton (1/2) for 27 in a row before a miss. He’s still the Bears’ runaway leader from the line at for the season at .902, and, equally important, he’s easily the Bears’ volume leader for attempts from the line. He’s also inching his way toward the single season and career top 10 in free throw percentage. His current string is nine made in a row.  Mitchell’s yearly MSU free throw stats:

Year FTM FTA FT%

2003-04 34 51 .667

2004-05 33 46 .717

2006-07 109 135 .807

2007-08 92 102 .902

nIn the Valley: The Bears have had four 12-6 finishes in its first 17 seasons in the Valley and the best the Bears have been in MVC play was a 13-5 mark in 1991-92 in Charlie Spoonhour's final season at the MSU helm and a 13-5 mark in 1999-00 in Barry Hinson's first year at Missouri State. In 17 Valley seasons, the Bears have had a winning conference record 13 times, finished .500 twice and been below .500 twice. Missouri State has had 14 first-division finishes in 17 league races, finishing five times, third five times, fourth twice, fifth twice, sixth twice and seventh once. Missouri State has never won the MVC regular season title, although the Missouri State program owns 19 conference crowns in its basketball history.

nBalanced Bears: The Bears’ front line of Deven Mitchell, Dale Lamberth and Drew Richards ran out to an early lead in team scoring and rebounding. The three were all near-unanimous picks to the all-tourney team Nov. 16-17 after the Bears’ 27-point win over UNCG in the title game. The three combined to average 56 points and 18.5 rebounds in the wins over Harding and UNCG and combined to shoot .667 (40/60) for the two games. But, they had help. Guards Shane and Spencer Laurie and Justin Fuehrmeyer were all among the tournament leaders in multiple stat categories with Fuehrmeyer leading the meet in assists. His 12 in the title game vs. UNCG were the most for a Bear since William Fontleroy had a dozen in 1997-98 vs. Illinois State. Spencer Laurie and Fuehrmeyer combined for 21 assists and just three turnovers in the final game.

nMinutes: The Bears are so balanced that no player is averaging as many as 30 minutes a game. Since minutes were first recorded in 1976-77, one or more players averaged 30 or more minutes every year through 2003-04. Anthony Shavies was the leader in 2004-05 at 28.3, and Blake Ahearn was the only player to average more than 30 the last two years.

nClimbing the Charts: Three Bears are moving up MSU career stat charts. Deven Mitchell and Drew Richards are the 30th and 31st MSU players with 100 or more games. Mitchell’s at 109 with Richards at 105 and both could reach the all-time top 10 this season. Mitchell is on a pace to be the 27th Bear with 1,000 points. He’s now at 922 and is fourth in steals (142). Drew Richards is fourth in blocked shots (114). Dale Lamberth’s six treys vs. Wichita State (1/2) pushed his total to 87, 10th all-time.

nHains gets #500: Art Hains, veteran Bears’ radio play-by-play voice on KTXR-FM, got the 500th Bears’ victory of his Missouri State announcing career Jan. 2 vs. Bradley. Hains went into the recent games in Las Vegas with a 499-299 W-L record for announcing 798 MSU games and the Purdue game was Hains’s 800th Missouri State broadcast. Hains originally did Bear games from 1977 to 1981 and returned to Springfield and MSU in 1985-86 so he’s in his 27th year covering the Bears. He’s part of a quartet of long-time play-by-play voices in the Valley, including Mike Reis of SIU (28th year), Mike Kennedy of Wichita State (29th year) and Dave Snell of Bradley (29th year).

nPRIDE in Pasadena: The year 2008 started out in great fashion for Missouri State on another front as Jerry Hoover’s Pride Marching Band was the lead band in the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1. The 300-member unit was in its second trip to the Rose Bowl festivities in California (its first was in 1995) and the much-honored Missouri State band has a long list of additional credits, including the New York City Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade three times, National Football League games in four cities and two trips to perform in London, England.

nFinding the "D": The Bears held five of their first 10 foes below 57 points and no opponent scored more than 70 in that span with MSU owning a 60.5 defensive average through 10 games. Alabama then touched the Bears for 81 points, Purdue scored 72, SIU got 79 and Bradley hit 80 as the defensive average slipped up to 64.5. It’s come back down to 63.4 the past three games with Creighton scoring 50, WSU getting 47 and Drake at 65.

n31 games: With their play in the exempt Las Vegas Classic plus a full non-league slate and a BracketBusters game in late February, the Bears are headed for their first 31-game regular season ever. In the past, the Bears have had 30 regular season games three times, including last year. Counting postseason play, the Bears have played 30 or more games in a season 18 times, with the record for most games in a season (34) in three years: 1986-87 (28-6), 1990-91 (22-12) and 1999-00 (23-11).

nBears picked 3rd: The Bears were picked third in the 2007-08 MVC preseason poll. With their third-place finish last year, the Bears have come in better that their preseason prediction four years in a row. Deven Mitchell, last year’s MVC Sixth Man of the Year, was on the preseason all-Valley team.