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Missouri State

MSU Bears vs. Wichita State

Men's Basketball

Missouri State Renews Rivalry With Red-Hot Shockers

Jan. 30, 2012

Missouri State Bears (13-10, 6-5) vs. Wichita State Shockers (18-4, 9-2)

Wed., Feb. 1, 2012, 7:05 p.m. (Central)

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

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: Missouri State leads 30-27 (MSU is 20-6 in Springfield)
Halftime: Brass and Sass, 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


THE GAME:

The final month of the regular season begins Wednesday night (7:05 p.m.) for the Missouri State Bears when they entertain arch rival Wichita State at JQH Arena. The Bears have won four of their last five at home against WSU and are 30-27 all-time against the Shockers. In the series, MSU is 20-6 in Springfield and 3-1 at JQH Arena.
The Bears are coming off an impressive 63-51 home win over Northern Iowa on Saturday before the sixth-largest crowd in MSU history. Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) notched his 13th career double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bears to the one-sided win over the Panthers before 9,376 fans at The Q. Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) added 16 points for MSU behind three three-pointers, while Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) added 9 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. MSU snapped a two-game home losing streak in the win and remained in a three-way tie for third place in the MVC.
WSU is coming off a 93-86 triple-overtime loss at Drake on Saturday. Coach Gregg Marshall's squad committed a season-high 18 turnovers against the Bulldogs to nullify 27 and 25 points respectively by Garrett Stutz and Joe Ragland.
The Shockers return three starters from a 29-8 club that won the 2011 NIT. WSU brings an 18-4 overall record to town and is 15-3 on the road over the past two years. The Shockers currently rank 30th in the nation in field goal percentage (.479).

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 13-10 in his first season at MSU and 15-33 in two years overall. He is 6-5 in MVC play (3-3 at home, 3-2 on the road), 7-4 at JQH Arena, 6-4 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. He is coaching against Wichita State for the first time and is also 1-1 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:

  • Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) is this week's MVC Newcomer of the Week. This is the third time he has been recognized with the honor this season and the sixth time the Bears have received the award in 2011-12. Downing also received the distinction on Nov. 14 and Jan. 2. He averaged 12.5 points per game with 5 three-pointers on the week, including 16 points in Saturday's home win over UNI. He registered 3 three-pointers, all in the second half, and was 3-for-3 at the free throw line against the Panthers. MSU improved to 4-1 when Downing scores 16 or more points.

  • Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) returned to the Bears' starting lineup for Saturday's win over UNI and responded with a career-high 10 rebounds to match Kyle Weems for game-high distinction. Perhaps more impressive is that four of his boards were on the offensive end to give him 7 offensive caroms for the week. He came one point shy of his first career double-double on Saturday and finished the week averaging 9.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

  • A total of 12 Division I teams have eight or more road wins this year. No BCS conference team has more than five, and three MVC teams have six or more, including Creighton (8), Missouri State (6), and Wichita State (6).

  • The Bears moved up two spots to No. 5 in the nation this week in turnovers per game (10.43), the best in the MVC. MSU trails only Wisconsin (8.9), Purdue (9.4), Northwestern (10.40) and Notre Dame (10.41) among the national leaders. Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3). (See sidebar on page 5)

  • Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.), ranks No. 3 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (+3.39) and 21st in assists (6.0). He leads the MVC in both categories and also needs 4 points for 300 in his career. (See sidebar on page 6)

  • In 125 career games, Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has led MSU in scoring 50 times (40 percent). He has also scored in double figures 102 times in his career (82 percent), which is tied for the national lead among active Division I players with Alex Young of IUPUI. His current streak of 22 straight double-digit scoring games is the second-longest of his career.

  • Over the last three weeks, the Bears have registered 10 or more offensive rebounds five times in a seven-game span. During that stretch, MSU has averaged 10.7 offensive boards per contest. In comparison, the Bears recorded double figures in offensive rebounds just four times during their first 16 games this season and have since accounted for 83 second-chance points during the recent seven-game surge. MSU is 7-1 when out-rebounding its opponents.

  • Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) moved into fourth place over the weekend on MSU's career scoring list with 1,737 points. He trails only Daryel Garrison (1,975 - 238 points ahead of Weems), Curtis Perry (1,835 - 98) and Johnny Murdock (1,834 - 97) among the Bears' all-time great scorers. He also needs just 4 points to give him 900 career points in MVC games and needs 72 points to reach 1,000 career points scored at JQH Arena.

  • Missouri State will host Old Dominion from the Colonial Athletic Conference on Saturday, Feb. 18 in the 2012 SEARS BracketBusters in a nationally televised game on ESPNU, starting at 4 p.m. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Bears and Monarchs. The Bears are playing in one of 13 nationally-televised games in the 71-game event.

  • Wichita State is coming off a season-high 18 turnovers in its triple-overtime loss at Drake on Saturday night. WSU is averaging 12.8 turnovers per game, which ranks fourth in the MVC this week.

  • Kyle Weems needs just 8 rebounds to give him 800 total for his career, a feat achieved by just four other Bears.

  • Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) needs just 3 more field goals to give him 100 this season.

  • After his 6 points and 3 rebounds off the bench against Northern Iowa, Isaiah Rhine (Sr., C, Versailles, Mo.) now needs just 3 rebounds for 150 in his career. He also needs 13 points to match his season high for scoring, currently at 54 points scored during his sophomore season in 2009-10.

  • Christian Kirk (Fr., F, Springfield, Mo.) has started eight straight games for MSU and has collected 38 points and 46 rebounds during that span. In the 14 previous games combined, he had 43 points and 29 rebounds.

THE OPPONENT:

Wichita State (18-4, 9-2 MVC) is coming off a 93-86 triple-overtime loss at Drake on Saturday. Coach Gregg Marshall's squad committed a season-high 18 turnovers against the Bulldogs to nullify 27 and 25 points respectively by Garrett Stutz (Sr., C, Kansas City, Mo.) and Joe Ragland (Sr., G, West Springfield, Mass.).

The Shockers, who return three starters and seven lettermen from a 29-8 club that won the 2011 NIT title, bring an 18-4 overall record to Springfield. Wichita State is 15-3 on the road over the past two seasons and ranks 10th in the nation in scoring margin (+15.4), 30th in field goal percentage (.479) and 21st in rebound margin (+6.6)

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