Jan. 16, 2012

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Missouri State Bears (11-8, 4-3) vs. #18 Creighton Bluejays (16-2, 7-1)
Wed., Jan. 18, 2012, 7:05 p.m. (Central)

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

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: Creighton leads 30-28 (Bears are 18-7 in Springfield)
Halftime: Elite Athletics, Athletic Director's Honor Roll, Sugar Bears

Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Game Tracker I Watch Live: Bears All-Access
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes I MSU Season Stats I MSU MVC-Only Stats

THE GAME:

After back-to-back heartbreaking losses in Missouri Valley Conference play, the Missouri State Bears look to get back on track tonight when they welcome No. 18 (ESPN/USA Today)/No. 19 (AP) Creighton to JQH Arena.
The Bears fell from a first-place tie in the MVC standings on Friday with a last-second 61-60 loss at UNI. MSU then faced another setback on Sunday with an 87-82 home overtime home loss to Evansville.
The Bears led Evansville 66-54 with 9:11 to play and used a pair of Keith Pickens free throws with 40 seconds left to push ahead 74-69 late. But UE knocked down a pair of three-pointers in the final 31.6 seconds and went 4-for-7 from the field in overtime to steal the win. Kyle Weems led MSU with 17 points, while Anthony Downing contributed 16 to lead the home team.
Since Missouri State upended Creighton 77-65 in Omaha on Dec. 28, the Bluejays have reeled off six straight conference victories. Led by the nation's No. 2 scorer Doug McDermott (So., F, Ames, Iowa), who averages 24.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, Creighton has remained in the Top 25 since conference play began.
MSU trails the all-time series against Creighton, 30-28, but has won six straight against the Bluejays. The Bears are 18-7 all-time at home against CU with three straight victories at JQH Arena in the series.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 11-8 in his first season at MSU and 13-31 in two years overall. He is 4-3 in MVC play (2-2 at home, 2-1 on the road), 6-3 at JQH Arena, 5-3 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 against Creighton and 1-0 against Top 25 opponents.
Lusk took the reigns as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including the last three as associate head coach. Now in his 14th 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 coached in six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments after playing in three NCAA Tourneys as a player at SIU.

THE TEN COUNT:

• Including the Dec. 28 win in Omaha, Missouri State is 6-18 all-time against Division I Top 25 opponents. In the only other JQH Arena game against a ranked foe, No. 25 Northern Iowa took advantage of a controversial intentional foul in the final minute to steal a 55-54 win from the Bears on Jan. 30, 2010. The Bears are 1-6 all-time in home games against ranked opponents, including a 63-58 loss to No. 17 Creighton at Hammons Student Center on Feb. 26, 2003.

• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) broke two JQH Arena records on Sunday with career highs 12 assists and 44 minutes played in the Bears' overtime loss to Evansville. Bizoukas tallied 19 assists (9.5 apg) and just 4 turnovers over the last two ball games for MSU and is averaging a conference-best 36.7 minutes per game in league play. In MVC games, Bizoukas also leads the league in assists (6.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.5).

• In four previous meetings between the top two players in the MVC, Missouri State's Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has outscored Creighton's Doug McDermott by an 83 (20.8 ppg) to 60 (15.0 ppg) margin. McDermott, however, has out-rebounded Weems 38-33 in those four previous match-ups.

• Creighton leads the nation in field goal percentage (.516) and three-point field goal percentage (.457). The Bluejays are also 2nd in assists (19.6), 4th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52), 6th in scoring (82.7), 8th in win-loss percentage (.889), and 12th in three-pointers per game (8.8).
  

• The Bears are currently ranked 13th in the nation in turnovers per game (11.1). Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3). Missouri State has 32 turnovers over the last two games.

• Missouri State is the last team to defeat Murray State, which is currently ranked No. 10 and is one of three unbeaten teams remaining in Division I basketball. The Bears defeated the Racers 89-76 at JQH Arena in the first round of the 2011 NIT on March 15, 2011. Jermaine Mallett scored a game-high 23 to lead five Bears in double figures, while Kyle Weems had 14 points and 5 rebounds, and Nathan Scheer tallied 12 points on a 4-for-5 shooting night.

• Over the weekend, the Bears moved up 14 spots to 40th in the nation in free thorw percentage. MSU was 33-for-41 (.805) in two games over the weekend to improve their season accuracty to .738. Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) is 14-for-14 at the line in MVC games.

• MSU standout freshman Christian Kirk (F, Springfield, Mo.) has started the last four games for the Bears and has led MSU in rebounding in two of the team's last three games. He posted a career-high 10 boards against Southern Illinois last week and then tallied a team-high 9 rebounds against Evansville on Sunday. He has also won two of the last three opening tip-offs for Missouri State and is averaging 4.3 points per game as a starter.

• Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) collected his 100th consecutive start in Friday's game at UNI, which is the fifth-longest active streak in Division I. On Sunday against Evansville, Weems notched his 98th career double-digit scoring game, which puts him alone atop the MSU career list and ties him with Alex Young of IUPUI for the Division I lead. Weems has posted 18 straight double-figure games and ranks No. 8 on the MSU career scoring list (1,674), just 3 points behind Blake Ahearn (1,677 points from 2003-07) for the No. 7 spot.

• Last season, Missouri State spent all but seven days in first place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and is now outside the league leaders for just the fifith day in 2011-12. The Bears are 19-6 in their last 25 conference games.

THE OPPONENT:

Creighton and second-year head coach Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa, 1988) are off to a stellar 16-2 start to the 2011-12 season and have attracted national attention and a No. 19 ranking this week by the Associated Press and No. 18 billing by the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Creighton has 10 lettermen and three starters back from a 23-16 team that finished as runners-up in the CBI last year after finishing 10-8 in the MVC (tied for fourth).

The Jays are 7-1 in MVC play and get a majority of their from super sophomore Doug McDermott (F, Ames, Iowa), the nation's No. 2 scorer (24.3). The 2010-11 MVC Freshman of the Year has attempted a quarter of the team's shots and is averaging 8.5 rebounds and firing at 62.1 percent from the field. Antoine Young (Sr., G, Bellevue, Neb.) is also averaging double figures with 12.3 points and 4.3 assists each night, while Gregory Echenique (Jr., C, Guartire, Venezuela) has contributed 8.9 points, 7.0 rebounds and made good on 56.4 percent of his field goal attempts.