Nov. 18, 2011

Missouri State Bears (2-0) vs. Emporia State Hornets (1-0)
Nov. 19, 2011, 7:05 p.m. (Central)

PREGAME: MVC Championship Ring & Banner Ceremony

JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: MSU leads 11-5
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: I Watch Live: Bears All-Access
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAME:

Fresh off a pair of impressive road victories to start the season, the Missouri State Bears return to JQH Arena tonight when they welcome the Emporia State Hornets to Springfield. Prior to tonight's game, the 2010-11 Bears will be recognized with a special ring and banner ceremony to commemorate the team's Missouri Valley Conference title.
MSU finished 26-9 a year ago en route to its first-ever MVC regular-season title. The Bears were 15-3 in The Valley last season, advanced to the second round of the NIT and finished 16-1 at JQH Arena where they are now 44-11 all-time.
So far this season, the Bears have soundly defeated Western Athletic Conference preseason favorite Nevada (68-46) on Nov. 11 before taking care of Sun Belt West Division favorite Arkansas State (77-46) on Nov. 15.
The star of the early going for the Bears has been Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) who matched a career high with 17 points at Nevada and then dropped 14 points on the Red Wolves of Arkansas State. Patterson's 15.5 scoring average leads Paul Lusk's squad, while newcomer Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) has also been impressive, scoring 13.5 points per game in the early going with a team-best five three-pointers and a solid 11-for-18 (.611) shooting ledger.
Emporia State and first-year head coach Shaun Vandiver are coming off an 85-67 season-opening win over Friends University on Tuesday night in Emporia. The Hornets got 20 points off the bench from Justin Ikhide (Jr., F, Springdale, Md.) behind a 7-for-8 shooting effort. Derrell Conner (Sr., G, East Chicago, Ind.) also scored 17 for ESU in reserve.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (SIU, 1995) is 2-0 in his first season at Missouri State and 4-23 in two years as a head coach. Lusk, who turned 40 on Nov. 14, took the reigns as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. Lusk came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue, including the last three as associate head coach. Now in his 14th season in the coaching profession, Lusk had a one-year head coaching stint at (Div. III) Dubuque (2002-03) in which he went 2-23. He has coached in six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments and is making his JQH Arena debut..

THE TEN COUNT:

• This week's MVC Newcomer of the Week, Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.), scored 12 in his MSU debut -- the most points by a Bear in a debut performance since Adam Leonard dropped 14 points on Auburn at JQH Arena on Nov. 16, 2009. He followed his initial effort with a team-high 15 points in a 31-point win at Arkansas State (Nov. 15).
• The Bears' game against Oklahoma State on Dec. 7 has been moved to an 8 p.m. start to accommodate the production needs of ESPN, which will air the game live on ESPNU. MSU is slated to appear on TV 16 times this year (22 last season).
• During the Division I era (1982-83 to present), the Bears are 28-1 in home openers. The lone loss was an 81-78 setback against North Texas (11/22/02) at Hammons Student Center.
• The Bears are averaging 8.0 three-pointers per game in the early going of 2011-12. They are looking to reach the 200 three-pointer plateau again in 2011-12 after posting at least 200 treys four times in the last five seasons. Last year, the Bears dropped 242 long-range bombs on their foes, just shy of the program's high-water mark of 252 set in 2009-10.
• Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) posted a solid 17-point effort at Nevada (Nov. 11), matching his career high. He was 7-for-14 from the field against the Wolf Pack, including a pair of three-pointers, and snagged 5 rebounds. He has also scored 17 points vs. Tulsa (11/28/09), at Drake (1/12/10) and vs. Indiana State (1/19/10) earlier in his career. He followed his season opener with 14 points at Arkansas State (Nov. 15) to go with a game-high 5 field goals.
• Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) is one of 30 NCAA men's basketball student-athletes selected as candidates for the 2011-12 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Weems, the returning MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year, is looking to become the first Valley player since Darren Brooks of Southern Illinois (2004-05) to win back-to-back honors.
• The Bears finished 7th in the nation a year ago in turnovers per game (10.3). Missouri State has had just 9 turnovers in each of its first two ball games while forcing 33 total mishaps. MSU has converted 37 points off turnovers, compared to 11 combined tallies by Nevada and Arkansas State.
• The Bears open the 2011-12 campaign playing four of their first six games against teams picked to win their conference. MSU has already defeated WAC preseason favorite Nevada (Nov. 11) and Sun Belt West top gun Arkansas State (Nov. 15). MSU will next travel to Summit League sweetheart Oral Roberts on Nov. 30 before visiting Mountain West front runner New Mexico on Dec. 3.
• Missouri State is coming off a 77-46 win at Arkansas State on Tuesday night (Nov. 15) in Jonesboro. The last time the Bears notched a 30-point road victory was Feb. 23, 1987 at Valparaiso in Charlie Spoonhour's fourth season with MSU.
• MSU has won nine of the last 10 meetings between the Bears and Hornets, although the clubs have not played in 40 years. The last time the teams met (Dec. 1, 1971), MSU rolled to an 85-74 win at McDonald Arena behind 24 points by Zach Townsend, 16 from Daryel Garrison, 13 by Lamar McCoy and 12 from Paul Toliver.