Dec. 10, 2014
Missouri State Game Notes 
| SEMO Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- Marcus Marshall (Jr., G, St. Paul, Minn.) heads into the weekend leading the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring (22.8) as well as ranking first in 3-pointers per game (3.8) and second in free throw percentage (.913).
- SEMO represents Missouri State's longest-standing rival with 143 meetings between the two teams since 1911.
- Dorrian Williams (Jr., G, Oklahoma City, Okla.) is set to make his 50th career start. He has 199 career assists and has made 49 career 3-pointers. He has posted double-figure scoring games in four straight outings.
- Austin Ruder (So., G, Nixa, Mo.) is coming off a 7-for-10 effort from beyond the arc against UALR, helping him to a career-high 23-point night. Only 10 MVC players in the last five seasons have scored 7 treys in a single game.
- The Bears are 4-0 this season when shooting at higher perecentage than their opponents.
- Ruder is averaging 3.0 points per game more than he did last year as a freshman (8.6 ppg to 11.6 ppg).
- Marshall looks to make his 50th career appearance this weekend. He currently has 99 assists in his career.
- Williams has led the Bears in rebounding in three of the last four games, averaging 6.5 caroms per night, including a career-high 9-board effort in the win over UALR last Thursday.
- The Bears rank 60th nationally in turnovers per game (11.7), but have committed fewer turnovers over the last four seasons than all but four NCAA Division I programs (10.5 per g). The team's 82 total turnovers this season ranks 38th.
- MSU's game at Oral Roberts last Sunday was postponed after a power outage in the city of Tulsa. After more than two hours of sitting around a darkened Mabee Center, the teams decided to postpone until Dec. 15. The last time a Bears' game was postponed was Jan. 28, 2009 when a contest at SIU was pushed back a day due inclement weather.
The Bears' longest-standing rivalry continues Saturday against SEMO in a series that dates back to 1911. The clubs have met 143 times with MSU leading 89-54, including last year's 81-78 MSU victory in Springfield on Dorrian Williams' buzzer beater.
Also in last year's game, Jarekious Bradley posted a game-high 26 points with 10 boards for the Redhawks, while Tyler Stone posted 22 points and 11 boards. The Bears got 19 points from Marcus Marshall with Ron Mvouika adding 9 off the bench.
The Bears are 28-41 all-time in Cape, 3-2 against SEMO as Division I foes and 0-2 in the Show-Me Center. .
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 51-54 (.486) in his fourth season at MSU and 53-77 (.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 24-22 against all non-conference foes (16-7 at JQH Arena, 7-8 away and 1-7 at neutral sites). He is also 33-17 in all home games, 15-27 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 all-time against SEMO (0-0 in Cape Girardeau).
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..
Final Stats | Season Stats | MSU TV Network | Highlights | Lusk Postgame | Players Postgame
Austin Ruder scored a career-high 23 points and tied a JQH Arena record with seven 3-pointers to lead Missouri State (4-3) to a 73-68 come-from-behind win over visiting Arkansas-Little Rock in Springfield on Dec. 4.
Ruder finished 7-for-10 from beyond the arc and made 8 of 11 shots overall to pace the win. Marcus Marshall added 18 points - 6 in the final minute - to help the Bears' cause, while fellow guard Dorrian Williams contributed 10 points, a career-high 9 rebounds and 5 assists.
Mareik Isom led three Trojans in double figures in the scoring column with 14 points, while James White added 13, and Ben Dillard contributed 11. UALR (4-2) led by 11 early in the second half before going nearly six minutes without a field goal late in the game.
Missouri State went into the half trailing by five, but immediately trimmed its deficit to 32-30 on the first play of the second half when Camyn Boone scored a traditional 3-point play just 12 seconds into the final period.
But Steve Shields' Trojans responded with a vengeance, reeling off 9 unanswered points to take a 41-30 lead less than 90 seconds later.
Ruder ended the Missouri State dry spell with his third trey of the game with just under 18 minutes remaining, and then got the deficit to 47-43 at the 14:39 mark with his fifth.
With 8:28 to go, Gus Leeper scored on a short jumper for UALR to push the visitors ahead 60-52, but that's when Missouri State mounted its rally. The Bears put together four consecutive defensive stops and then sparked a 15-1 run over the next six-plus minutes to pull ahead 67-61. The stretch was highlighted by Ruder's final long ball of the night with 5 minutes to go, and a Chris Kendrix trey as the shot clock expired at the 3:09 mark. After Boone was flagrantly fouled and made a pair of free throws, MSU kept possession up by six and just 2:12 remaining.
UALR chipped away and got back within four points on two occasions, but Missouri State had an answer each time. Marshall responded on the first run with a floater in the lane with just under a minute to go, and then after a Ruder steal with 7 seconds left, Marshall was fouled and made both free throws with 6.9 ticks showing.
The Trojans fired home a desperation 3-pointer by Isom with 1.3 seconds to go to make it a 71-68 game, but Marshall was wrapped up and fouled before the buzzer after which he converted his final two charity shots of the night to give MSU a five-point win.
The Bears made 56 percent of their shots in the second half and tallied a 15-11 rebounding edge in the decisive second period. For the game, the home side finished 25-of-53 (.472) overall and 10-for-23 (.435) beyond the arc with a season-best .867 (13-for-15) effort at the line.
Missouri State had just 10 turnovers on the night, posted 22 points in the paint and logged 15 assists.
The Trojans finished with a .479 shooting effort on 23-of-48 from the field and 9-of-16 (.563) from downtown, but struggled at the line with 10 misses in 23 attempts (.565). DeVonte Smith paced UALR on the glass with 8 caroms, while Josh Hagins contributed 5 assists.
In the first half, the Bears stormed out to a seven-point lead 11 minutes into the game on a Marshall layup to cap a seven-point half for the MVC's top scorer. But UALR answered with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 22 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Reid.
Ruder responded by giving the lead back to the home club on consecutive possessions, first with a 12-footer, and then a clutch trey from the corner at the 5:35 mark that put MSU ahead 27-24.
But the rest of the half belonged to the Trojans who closed out the opening period on an 8-0 run to take a 32-27 lead into the break. UALR, which started just 3-of-11 from the field, finished the half 10-for-25 and a 19-14 rebounding advantage. The Bears missed their final 8 shots of the opening stanza.
Dickey Nutt (Oklahoma State, 1982) is in his sixth season at the helm of the Redhawks (5-4), winners in 3 of their last 4 games.
Jarekious Bradley (Sr., G/F) is averaging a team-best 17.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, while Nino Johnson (Sr., F, 10.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and Antonius Cleveland (So., G, 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg) also pace Southeast, which is 4-0 at home this season..
Missouri State University and Oral Roberts University have reached an agreement to reschedule their men's basketball game for Monday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m., at the Mabee Center in Tulsa.
This is a rescheduled contest from the Dec. 7 game that was postponed due to a power outage in the south Tulsa area last Sunday..
