Dec. 21, 2014
Missouri State Game Notes 
| Oral Roberts Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- As of Sunday, Marcus Marshall (Jr., St. Paul, Minn.) ranks 6th nationally in scoring (22.7), 6th in 3-pointers per game (3.89), 2nd in 3-point field goal percentage (.565) and 3rd in free throw percentage (.956), all of which lead the MVC among all players with at least the NCAA minimum 2.5 makes per game.
- Dorrian Williams (Jr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) ranks 2nd in the MVC in assists (4.8) and 5th in assist-to-turnover (1.8).
- The Bears have shot better than their opponents at the free throw line in 7-of-11 games this year and have made 80 percent or better in 5 straight games. The last time MSU shot 80% at the line 5 games in a row was a 7-game streak from Dec. 8, 1984 to Jan. 7, 1985. Over its last 5 games, the Bears are 71-for-81 (.877) from the charity stripe.
- Austin Ruder (So., Nixa, Mo.) and Marcus Marshall both eclipsed 100 career 3-pointers in Saturday's game vs. EMU.
- Gavin Thurman (Jr., Wichita, Kan.) has scored in double figures in three of the last four games, all off the bench, while averaging 11.8 points in that span. He has also snagged 6 rebounds over his last 2 games.
- Marcus Marshall posted all of his game-high 21 points against Eastern Michigan in the second half Saturday. He dropped from the No. 1 spot in NCAA 3-point FG pct., on 4-of-11 from beyond the arc, but made 7-of-7 free throws.
- The Bears have allowed 74 points or more in all three games of their current losing streak (77.0 ppg). The last time MSU surrendered 74 points in three straight games was Jan. 12-24, 2010 during a 4-game MVC stretch.
- Tyler McCullough (So., Fayetteville, Ark.) needs 2 rebounds to reach 100 for his career (39 games).
- Missouri State is coming off a 9-steal performance Saturday against EMU, matching a season high.
- Marcus Marshall has scored in double figures in all 9 games he has played this season and 39 times in his career.
ORU leads the series between the teams, 6-5, in a rivalry that dates back to 1981.
Missouri State is 2-2 at home against the Golden Eagles, including a 1-1 mark at JQH Arena.
The teams met a week ago in Tulsa with Coach Scott Sutton's team putting together runs of 19-0 and 16-0 in the second half to overcome a 33-32 MSU halftime lead in an 80-61 win for the Golden Eagles. Marcus Marshall posted 12 points for the Bears, while Loomis Gerring notched 15 points and 5 boards on 5-of-7 shooting.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 52-57 (.477) in his fourth season at MSU and 54-80 (.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 25-25 against all non-conference foes (16-8 at JQH Arena, 8-10 away and 1-7 at neutral sites). He is also 33-18 in all home games, 16-29 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. He is 1-3 against Oral Roberts (0-1 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.
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Eastern Michigan (9-2) shot 51 percent from the field and withstood a late rally by Missouri State to hand the Bears their first home loss of the season here Saturday in a 77-65 Eagles win at JQH Arena.
Karrington Ward posted 18 points and a game-high 9 rebounds for EMU, while Raven Lee added 14 points. Lee connected on four 3-pointers, none bigger than his third one with 7:42 left that ended a 12-1 Bears' run and had the home club within 55-49 of the lead.
After back-to-back 3-pointers by Marcus Marshall and Gavin Thurman helped Missouri State (5-6) whittle a once-18-point deficit down to six, the Bears seemingly had a stop after a missed three by Jordan Price. But Ward came over an MSU defender for the offensive rebound and kicked it to Lee for the clutch trey which pushed the Eagles' lead back to nine.
Marshall, who scored all of his game-high 21 points in the second half, got the Bears back within seven on Missouri State's next possession with a pair of free throws. But Ward and Nazion Brandon led the visitors on an 8-2 outburst over the next minute to push Eastern's lead back to 13.
The Bears had one final rally in them around the three-minute mark after another Lee 3-pointer gave EMU a 69-55 advantage. Marshall converted a four-point play after his fourth trey of the night, and Camyn Boone logged a pair of free throws to make it 69-61 with 3:03 to go.
But after getting a rare Eagles' miss at the free throw line on their next possession, the Bears pushed the ball to Gavin Thurman whose short jumper in the lane was off its mark with about two-and-a-half minutes to go. The Bears had to foul, and the visitors converted six of their final eight charity shots to close out the win.
Missouri State failed to make another field goal after Marshall's 3-pointer and subsequent free throw at the 3:24 mark.
EMU, which led the nation in field goal percentage defense a year ago, held Missouri State to a season-low 31.3 percent effort from the field on 20-of-64 attempts. Meanwhile, the Eagles kept the pressure on the Bears with hot shooting on their end, knocking down 25-of-49 (.510) shots and 9-of-23 (.391) from outside the arc with two huge treys in the final eight minutes.
The Eagles were also 18-of-23 (.783) at the line and committed 13 turnovers.
Paul Lusk's Bears finished 7-of-26 (.269) from beyond the arc, and a season-best 18-of-19 (.947) at the foul line to mark MSU's fifth straight game converting 80 percent or more from the charity stripe. Missouri State also matched EMU on the boards with 35 and committed a season-low 6 turnovers.
Boone and Thurman also contributed 11 points for the home side with Boone snagging 7 boards. Dorrian Williams logged 8 assists with no turnovers.
In the first half, an 11-1 Eastern Michigan run over the last five minutes of the period gave the Eagles a 31-19 lead at the break.
MSU, which started 1-for-14 from the field, finished the half just 6-for-30 (.200) from the perimeter and 2-of-11 (.182) from long range.
After falling behind 5-0, the Bears got some momentum back on a pair of free throws by Chris Kendrix and a put back by Thurman to make it a 5-4 game. Later, after EMU pushed ahead 16-9, the Bears gained traction on a 3-pointer by Austin Ruder, a transition bucket by Thurman and a deep layup by Tyler McCullough to make it an 18-16 game with 6:49 to go.
But MSU would go without a field goal the rest of the half, missing six in a row before the break, while the Eagles mounted their best run of the game to climb ahead by a dozen at the midway point.
Missouri State, which fell to 3-1 at JQH Arena this season, suffered just its eighth double-digit home loss since the facility opened in 2008.
The Bears will break for the holidays and return to action at Southern Illinois on Dec. 31 in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both clubs. The game will tip at 5:05 p.m., and be televised on KOLR-10 TV and the Missouri State Television Network.
