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Missouri State

Anthony Downing

Men's Basketball

MSU Starts Second Half of Valley Slate at Illinois State

Jan. 24, 2012

Missouri State Bears (12-9, 5-4) at Illinois State Redbirds (12-8, 4-5)
Wed., Jan. 25, 2012, 6:05 p.m. (Central)

Redbird Arena (10,000), Normal, Ill. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: ISU leads 33-25 (MSU is 6-19 in Normal)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Live Stats I Watch Live: Ozarks CW (KCZ) & ESPN3.com
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

COMING UP:

Hall of Fame Weekend - Saturday, Jan. 28 vs. Northern Iowa (MAROON OUT), 4 p.m. (ESPNU), JQH Arena

THE GAME:

Missouri State (12-9, 5-4 MVC) begins the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule Wednesday when the Bears travel to Normal, Ill., for another shot at the Illinois State Redbirds (12-8, 4-5).
ISU scored a 68-60 victory over the Bears on Jan. 4 at JQH Arena to hand MSU its worst home conference loss since 2008-09. The Redbirds dropped 10 three-pointers on Missouri State and out-rebounded the Bears 44-33 in the contest, while holding the Bears to 36.8 percent shooting from the field. Newcomer Bryant Allen (Jr., G, Maplewood, Mo.) tallied 14 points off the bench behind three treys, while John Wilkins (Jr., G, Antibes, France) scored 15 points. Since then, ISU is 2-4 in MVC games with solid home wins over Evansville and Indiana State.
MSU is coming off a 51-48 road win at Drake on Saturday night, the club's third road win in league play as MSU improved to 5-4 in the MVC and 6-3 on the road. Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) had 15 points and 8 rebounds to lead MSU, while Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) posted 16 points off the bench, and Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) scored nine.
Illinois State is 9-2 at Redbird Arena this season, including a 3-1 record at home in league play. ISU leads the all-time series, 33-25, including a 19-6 ledger in Normal. The Bears won 68-59 a year ago at ISU to snap a three-game skid at Redbird Arena.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 12-9 in his first season at MSU and 14-32 in two years overall. He is 5-4 in MVC play (2-3 at home, 3-1 on the road), 6-4 at JQH Arena, 6-3 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. He is 0-1 against Illinois State (0-0 in Normal). He is also 1-1 against Top 25 opponents this season.
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:

  • Missouri State senior Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) will be playing in his 100th career game tonight. The multi-talented 6-foot-11 standout played 14 games at Colorado his freshman year before transferring to Missouri State. Since moving into a regular role this season, Patterson has more than doubled his offensive scoring production and currently ranks second on the club in scoring (12.9 ppg).

  • The 51 points the Bears scored at Bradley on Saturday (Jan. 21) marked the lowest scoring output in a victory since a 51-50 win at Drake on Jan. 25, 2004. The MSU defense surrendered just 48 to the Braves on Saturday, marking the first time the Bears have held their opponent under 50 points since the team did so in three straight wins to start the 2011-12 season.

  • Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) needs just 9 assists to give him 300 for his career. The DePaul University transfer has collected 53 assists with just 13 turnovers for a league-best 4.08 assist-to-turnover ratio in MVC contests. His 5.9 assists is tops in Valley games, while his overall assist average (6.0 apg) is the best in the MVC.

  • Missouri State is 10-3 over its last 13 Valley road games, second only to Wichita State. The Shockers' only road loss in that span was at Missouri State on Feb. 26, 2011.

  • In the six games since the Bears and Redbirds played at JQH Arena on Jan. 4, Missouri State has gone 2-0 when trailing at halftime and 1-3 when leading at the intermission. Missouri State snapped a three-game conference skid on Saturday at Bradley, a game the Bears trailed 20-19 after the first 20 minutes.

  • Missouri State is the last team to defeat Murray State, which is the lone unbeaten team remaining in Division I basketball. The Bears defeated the Racers 89-76 at JQH Arena in the first round of the 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.

  • Missouri State's bench proved critical in Saturday's win at Bradley as the MSU reserves outscored Bradley's backups by a 25-0 margin. The Bears, who got 16 points from Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) and 9 points from Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) in the come-from-behind win, improved to 7-4 when their bench outscores their opponents'.

  • Filling in for the ailing Keith Pickens (So., G, St. Louis, Mo.), Nathan Scheer (So., G/F, Washington, Mo.) returned to the starting lineup for Saturday's win at Bradley. After starting 11 of the first 12 games this season, Scheer had been out of the starting rotation the previous eight games, but took advantage of his start in Peoria with 24 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds and a three-pointer, along with a pair of clutch free throws with 0.7 seconds remaining.

  • The Bears have shot a higher percentage from the field than 15 of their 21 opponents this season, but have been out-shot by four straight foes.

  • Since returning from a concussion he sustained against Drake on Dec. 31, Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) has scored in double figures all five games -- all off the bench -- and is averaging 15.8 points in that span. Patterson is also pulling down 2.8 rebounds per game during that same five-game stretch.

  • Today's game features two of the Valley's top shot blockers with active career leader Kyle Weems (111) of Missouri State and Jackie Carmichael (107) of Illinois State.

  • The Redbirds rank 15th in the nation in three-pointers per game (8.6) and are 47th nationally in free throw percentage (.732).

THE OPPONENT:

Illinois State (12-8, 4-5) snapped a three-game league losing streak on Wednesday with a 67-54 home win over Indiana State before falling to 4-5 in The Valley on Saturday with a 79-71 loss at Evansville. Against the Purple Aces, Nic Moore (Fr., G, Winona Lake, Ind.) posted a team-high 17 points for the Redbirds with three triples, six assists and a 4-for-4 day at the free throw line. Tyler Brown (Jr., G, Owensboro, Ky.) added 14 points and five rebounds for Coach Tim Jankovich's squad, which recorded 10 three-pointers and shot 46.3 percent from the field.

Brown shares the team lead for scoring average at 12.8 points per game, along with Jackie Carmichael (Jr., F, Manhattan, Kan.) who leads the club with 8.2 rebounds. Missouri native Jon Ekey (So., F. Independence, Mo.) scores 9.5 points per game and trails only Carmichael in rebounding at 5.2 boards per night. Brown, Ekey and Moore have combined to make 116 three-pointers this season, helping the Redbirds rank 15th nationally in three-pointers per game with 8.6.

Illinois State has three starters and six lettermen back from a 12-19 squad that was 4-14 (tied for ninth) in the MVC last year.

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