Dec. 15, 2014
Missouri State Game Notes 
| Oral Roberts Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
Game 9 | Missouri State Bears (5-3) at Oral Roberts (3-4) | Mabee Center, Tulsa, Okla. | 7 p.m.
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| Date | Monday, Dec. 15, 2014 | 7:00 p.m. (Central) |
| Location | Mabee Center (10,575) | Tulsa, Okla. |
| Tickets | Game 8 Tickets | MSU Season Tickets |
| Directions | Driving Directions to Mabee Center |
| Fan Information | BearWear | Browser Theme | MSU Bookstore |
| Television | None | Missouri State Television Network |
| Radio | Missouri State Radio Network with Art Hains and Mike Keltner | Listen  |
| Online | Watch Live |
| MissouriStateBears.com | Live Stats | Basketball Home Page |
| Follow | @MissouriStBears | @MSUBearsHoops | Bears on Facebook  | Bears on Instagram  | #MSUBears |
| All-Time Series | Series tied, 5-5 | Streak: MSU 1 in a row | Last Meeting: MSU 70, ORU 67 (12/13/13) |
| Up Next | Missouri State travels to Tulsa on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m. |
- Marcus Marshall (Jr., G, St. Paul, Minn.) ranks 7th nationally in scoring (22.5), 5th in 3-point FG percentage (.595), and 11th in free throw percentage (.935). He leads the MVC in all three categories.
- Missouri State ranks first in the MVC in 3-pointers per game (7.88), which also puts the Bears 55th nationally.
- The Bears' 73-61 win at SEMO on Saturday is the club's second road victory this season (2-1) and largest margin
of victory in an away win since a 66-54 decision at Evansville, Feb. 2014. - Austin Ruder (So., G, Nixa, Mo.) is 12-for-16 (.750) from beyond the arc over the last two ball games and is just 3 3-pointers shy of reaching 100 for his career. He would become the 12th MSU player to do so.
- Marcus Marshall ranks 5th nationally in 3-point percentage (.595), while Ruder ranks 45th. Missouri State joins Belmont, Central Michigan, Hofstra and Iona as the only teams with two players ranked in the top 50.
- MSU's .632 3-point percentage (12-for-19) at SEMO was its best effort from long range (minimum 10 attempts) since
firing at a .692 clip at Wichita State (9-fo-13) on Feb. 10, 2009. - The Bears are 5-0 this season when shooting at a higher field goal percentage than their opponents.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., F, Seattle, Wash.) has grabbed exactly 9 rebounds in 4 of his 8 games at Missouri State and is avearging a team-high 5.9 rebounds per game -- the 8th-best average in the MVC.
- Oral Roberts has won six straight regular-season games at the Mabee Center.
- Ten different Missouri State players have scored in double figures already this season. Marshall leads all players with 6 double-figure scoring games, followed by Ruder with 5..
The series between the Bears and Golden Eagles is tied, 5-5, in a rivalry that dates back to 1981.
Missouri State is 3-3 at ORU, including a 70-67 win at the Mabee Center in Tulsa last season that broke a two-game ORU win streak in the series (Dec. 13, 2013).
In that game, Marcus Marshall posted 20 points, and Jarmar Gulley added 15 as the Bears sank 9 straight free throws in the final 43 seconds to secuire a solid road victory. Christian Kirk added 12 points and a game-high 6 rebounds for MSU.
Paul Lusk is 1-2 against the Golden Eagles, including a 1-1 mark in Tulsa.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 52-54 (.491) in his fourth season at MSU and 54-77 (.412) 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 25-22 against all non-conference foes (16-7 at JQH Arena, 8-8 away and 1-7 at neutral sites). He is also 33-17 in all home games, 16-27 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. He is 1-2 against Oral Roberts (1-1 in Tulsa).
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 | Tickets for EMU Game
Marcus Marshall scored a game-high 21 points, and Gavin Thurman notched 19 off the bench to help lead Missouri State (5-3) to a 73-61 road win over Southeast Missouri State (5-5) here Saturday.
The Bears also got 16 points from Austin Ruder who made 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, while Camyn Boone snagged 9 rebounds to help the Bears out-rebound the Redhawks 36-34 in a game the visitors trailed by four at the midway point.
The Bears took their first lead of the night on a Dorrian Williams transition layup with 17:46 to go and never fell behind again, using a critical 9-2 run midway through the period to pull ahead by nine after a Thurman tip-in.
Down the stretch, SEMO got within 59-54 with 6:33 to play before a Boone layup on a pass from Marshall pushed Paul Lusk's squad ahead by seven, and Thurman extended it to nine on a pair of free throws with 3:11 to play.
Southeast's press gave the Bears issues with two-and-a-half to play as the Redhawks climbed back within 63-59, but a Thurman trey - his third of the night - with 1:47 on the clock, put the game out of reach.
MSU made 7-of-8 from the foul line in the final minute to close out the win and hand SEMO its first home loss of the year.
For the night, Missouri State was 22-for-53 (.415), 12-of-19 (.632) from beyond the arc and 17-of-20 (.850) at the line with 13 turnovers.
SEMO got 13 from Nino Johnson, 12 from Antonius Cleveland and 11 by Isiah Jones. The Redhawks finished 23-of-58 (.397), 6-of-24 (.250) from downtown and 9-of-13 (.692) at the line with 15 mishaps and 9 steals.
In a sloppy first half, the Bears shot under 30 percent and committed 7 turnovers to trail 32-28 at the break. MSU drew within 16-15 with eight-and-a-half minutes left in the opening half on a pair of free throws by Marcus Marshall, but gave up three dunks over the next five SEMO possessions to fall behind again.
MSU climbed within 22-21 and 24-23 from there, but was unable to take the lead. An 8-2 run by the Redhawks before the intermission gave Southeast its biggest lead of the half at 32-25 with 1:01 to play. Thurman then responded with his second trey in the final minute, and the Bears' defense got a stop on the final possession of the period to pull the visitors within four at the midway point.
Missouri State will continue its Tulsa trip Wednesday with a cross-town clash with the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. MSU leads the all-time series 21-18, including a 6-12 mark at UT.
