Nov. 21, 2014
Missouri State Game Notes 
| Texas Tech Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- MSU head coach Paul Lusk is gunning for his 50th win with the Bears. He is 49-51 through his first 100 games.
- Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith spent four seasons in the Missouri Valley Conference as head coach of Tulsa from 1991-95. The Golden Hurricane were 79-43 under Smith (52-20 in the MVC) with back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995.
- The Bears are shooting for their 1600th all-time win tonight. Playing in their 103rd season, Missouri State stands at 1599-907 (.638) all-time which ranks 29th among all Division I programs by wins and 22nd by percentage.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) has secured 9 rebounds in each of his first two games with the Bears. He was one carom shy of his first double-double in Wednesday's win over Avila, scoring 10 points of 5-of-6 from the field.
- Christian Kirk (Sr., F, Springfield, Mo.) is playing in his 99th career game. He has 603 points and needs 8 more points to match Drew Richards (2004-08) for 85th place on the Bears' career scoring list.
- As of Thursday, Marcus Marshall (Jr., G, St. Paul, Minn.) ranks 9th nationally in scoring average (25.5). He has made 16-of-22 (.727) shots to start the season and is averaging 37.8 points per 40 minutes.
- Over the last four seasons, only four Division I programs have committed fewer turnovers than the Bears (10.50).
- Missouri State is looking for a 3-0 start for the second straight season and third time in four years under Lusk.
- The Bears' +32 rebound margin (51-19) in Wednesday's win over Avila was a JQH Arena record and the best single-game margin since a +27 against Evansville on March 6, 2008. MSU's last 50-rebound game was Feb. 6, 2007.
- MSU's last game against a Texas team was a 73-67 victory over Texas A&M in the Corpus Christi semifinals (11/29/13).
The Bears and Red Raiders played three times in the 1990s with Texas Tech winning all three meetings in the series. MSU dropped a 97-74 decision in its only previous trip to Lubbock (12/9/95).
The Bears were 3-6 against Tubby Smith when he coached Tulsa (1991-95), including a win in the 1992 MVC title game in St. Louis. TTU assistant coach Pooh Williamson played for Smith at Tulsa.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 49-51 (.490) in his fourth season at MSU and 51-74 (.408) in his fifth season overall as a head coach. He is 25-29 in MVC games (17-10 at home, 8-19 on the road), 2-3 in MVC Tournament games and 23-19 against all non-conference foes (15-7 at JQH Arena, 6-7 away and 1-5 at neutral sites). He is also 32-17 in all home games, 14-26 on the road, and 3-8 at neutral sites. He has never coached against Texas Tech.
The 43-year-old Lusk took the reins as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including his last three as associate head coach there. Now in his 16th 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 played or coached in 10 NCAA Tournaments.
Last season, Lusk helped engineer the eighth-best turnaround in the Division I ranks as the Bears finished 20-13 and made an appearance in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Lusk finished third in the MVC Coach of the Year voting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award.
Six Missouri State players scored in double figures, including a game-high 13 by Marcus Marshall, to lead the Bears to an 87-39 win over visiting Avila.
Marshall played just 16 minutes, but made 4 of 6 field goals and a pair of 3-pointers while dishing out 2 assists and grabbing 2 steals. Austin Ruder added 12 points for Paul Lusk's squad, while Robin Thompson and Ron Mvouika each scored 11, and newcomers Loomis Gerring and Camyn Boone scored 10 apiece. Boone also grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds.
Avila got 12 points off the bench from Bradley Reed and 11 from Sedrick Johnson. Johnson also snagged 6 rebounds for the Kansas City-based Eagles who committed 19 turnovers on the night.
The Bears never trailed in the contest and used runs of 18-2 and 15-0 in the first half to lead 47-14 at the break. Missouri State opened the second half on a 19-3 run to climb ahead by 49 points on a dunk by Chris Kendrix with 12:43 to go and later led by as many as 52.
It was the largest margin of victory for Missouri State ever in JQH Arena and its largest overall since a 106-54 win over Evansville on Jan. 9, 2007 in Hammons Student Center. Likewise, the club's +32 rebound margin (51-19) was its best on record
Missouri State collected 46 points in the paint and produced 27 points off turnovers. MSU's reserves, who played most of the second half, accounted for 40 points with four of the team's five starters scoring in double figures. The Bears also broke a JQH Arena record for rebound margin, outgathering the Eagles by a 51-19 ratio.
In the first half, the Bears scored 19 points off 14 Avila turnovers and made 10 of their first 14 shots. A 15-0 run late in the period that included 8 points by Boone, built a 30-point advantage for the home side with three-and-a-half minutes left in the opening stanza.
Freshman Robin Thompson scored 10 of his 11 points in the second half, paced by a pair of dunks and 7-of-9 makes from the foul line to complement his 5 rebounds. The team's four freshmen combined for 19 points overall, with Boone and Gerring pushing the MSU newcomer total to 39 points on the night.
Missouri State travels to Anchorage, Alaska to play Colorado State on Nov. 27 at 1 a.m. (CT) in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 26-29.The game will air live nationally on CBS Sports Network. MSU will play either Pacific or Alaska-Anchorage in the second round on Nov. 28.
