Dec. 2, 2014 Missouri State Game Notes 
| UALR Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- Marcus Marshall's 13.4 scoring average at JQH Arena is the second-highest in the facility's seven seasons as home of the Bears. Only Kyle Weems (2008-12) has scored at a higher per-game rate (14.0) at The Q.
- Missouri State has recorded more steals than its opponent in four straight games. During the team's recent four-game road swing through Texas and Alaska, the Bears snagged 21 steals, compared to 11 by their foes.
- Dorrian Williams (Jr., G, Oklahoma City, Okla.) is coming off an all-tournament team performance at the Great Alaska Shootout in which he averaged 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds 4.3 assists and 2.7 steals in three starts.
- In 7 seasons at JQH Arena, Missouri State is 76-28 (.731) , including a 16-3 (.842) ledger the last two seasons with all three losses coming by three points or loss in that span.
- In 39 career games, Austin Ruder (So., G, Nixa, Mo.) has a 2.13 assist-to-turnover ratio with 49 assists.
- Missouri State is 3-0 this season and 39-11 under Lusk when it shoots at a higher percentage than its opponents.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., F, Seattle, Wash.) was named GCI Player of the Game in Missouri State's win over Alaska-Anchorage (11/28/14) with a 14-point, 9-rebound effort against the Seawolves while going 5-for-7 from the field with 4 blocks. Boone has posted 9 rebounds in three of his six games with the Bears.
- Freshman Shawn Roundtree, Jr. (G, Edwardsville, Ill.) had a 13:2 assist-to-turnover ratio in three games in Alaska.
- Marcus Marshall ranks 79th on MSU's career scoring list with 636 points in 48 games. The next three players ahead of him on the list are: Carl Wilks (1958-62) 637; Scott Hawk (1974-78) 643; and Merrill Andrews (2002-04) 654.
- Loomis Gerring is coming off a 41-minute assignment against WSU in which he scored 18 points and had 5 rebounds.
Missouri State leads the all-time series, 6-0, including wins in both previous meetings at JQH Arena.
The series between the Bears and Trojans dates to 1986 when the clubs met in Honolulu in the Hawaii Pacific Tournament. Missouri State is 3-0 all-time against UALR in Springfield and 2-0 in Little Rock.
From the teams' current rosters, only Missouri State's Christian Kirk (1 minute, 0 points) and UALR's Ben Dillard (18 minutes, 0 points) remain from the last time the Bears and Trojans met.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 50-54 (.481) in his fourth season at MSU and 52-77 (.403) 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 23-22 against all non-conference foes (15-7 at JQH Arena, 7-8 away and 1-7 at neutral sites). He is also 32-17 in all home games, 15-27 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 against Arkansas-Little Rock (0-0 at JQH Arena).
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.
In the final seconds of regulation, Dorrian Williams drove to the basket for the potential game-winning shot, but his layup off the glass spun around the rim and came out to force overtime. Washington State capitalized on its good fortune and sent Missouri State home with an 89-84 defeat in extra time and sixth-place finish in the Great Alaska Shootout.
Williams finished with 13 points and game highs 6 rebounds and 8 assists for the Bears who led by 12 at the intermission and by 14 early in the second half.
Camyn Boone added 19 points for MSU before fouling out, while Loomis Gerring and Marcus Marshall each scored 18, and Austin Ruder added 14.
DaVonte Lacey led all scorers with 31 points, including 8 in overtime, to lead four Washington State players in double figures in the scoring column. The Cougars went 18-for-27 (.667) from the field after the intermission and shot a solid 83 percent at the foul line to keep themselves in the game.
The Bears were in command for most of the game and got a dunk from Boone and pair of free throws from Williams to lead 49-35 with 18:38 to play. Washington State whittled its deficit to six with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes, but a 3-pointer by Ruder got the lead back to 52-43.
With 10 minutes to go, Williams dropped in a clutch trey of his own, in addition to a transition bucket, while Boone's layup around the 9-minute mark countered a pair of Cougar 3-pointers that had brought WSU within 61-57.
Boone's layup with 4:43 left in regulation pushed the Bears up 71-64, but Missouri State would collect just one more field goal the rest of the way - a 3-pointer by Marshall in the final two minutes - while WSU climbed back.
It looked like Marshall's 3-pointer, which gave Missouri State a 74-71 lead, was going to hold up when Lacey missed a long shot for the Cougars with 75 seconds left, and Williams gathered the rebound. The Bears wound the clock down to 43 seconds before Gerring narrowly missed a 3-pointer. Washington State took advantage with a downtown basket by Que Johnson to tie the game with 30 seconds to play before MSU set up Williams for the last-second attempt.
In overtime, Marshall brought the Bears back from three down with a 3-pointer with to give MSU a 78-77 edge with 3:25 to go, and free throws by Gerring and Williams in the final 90 seconds kept within one. But when the Bears trapped Lacey in the corner on the in-bound pass, Williams was whistled for a foul, which Lacey converted. Lacey made 6 straight free throws in the final 25 seconds of OT, while MSU missed its only shot in that span.
The Bears begin a three-game road swing Sunday with a trip to Tulsa for a battle against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles in the first of two meetings between the clubs this season. The game will be televised on KOZL-TV locally and the Missouri State Television Network.
