Dec. 27, 2015
Missouri State Game Notes | Illinois State Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- The Bears are opening their 26th season in the Missouri Valley Conference and are 16-9 all-time in Valley openers with 6 straight league-opening victories (4-0 under Paul Lusk).
- Dorrian Williams (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) is coming off a season-high 8 assists against SEMO (12/22/15) which moved him into 10th place on MSU's career list (348). He currently ranks 3rd in the MVC in assists per game (4.3).
- Dequon Miller (Jr., Charleston, W.Va.) has scored in double figures 6 straight games, averaging 14.5 points per game in that span with 20 rebounds and 11 3-pointers. He is a two-time MVC Newcomer of the Week.
- Obediah Church (Fr., Springfield, Ill.) ranks 39th nationally in blocked shots (25), which also ranks 7th among all NCAA Division I freshmen players. His 2.08 blocks per game ranks 39th nationally and 2nd in the MVC.
- Missouri State's 28 3-point field goal attempts against SEMO (12/22/15) were the most ever by the Bears under Lusk.
- Over the last 3 games, Tyler McCullough (Jr., Fayetteville, Ark.) is averaging 12 minutes, 4.7 rebounds & 1.7 blocks.
- Camyn Boone (Sr., Mesa, Ariz.) is tied for 2nd in the MVC in defensive rebounds per game (4.8 rpg) and is 4th in the league in total rebounding per game (6.7 rpg). Boone is also 6th in the MVC in field goal percentage (.541).
- Jarred Dixon (Fr., Kansas City, Mo.) is coming off a breakout game on Dec. 22 against SEMO where he tallied 15 points on 7-of-16 shooting with 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and his first dunk.
- MSU ranks 72nd nationally in blocked shots (54), while ISU ranks 89th (51). The Bears also rank 2nd in the MVC and 83rd nationally in blocks per game (4.5).
- Illinois State is 5-2 at Redbird Arena so far this season and is averaging 4,328 fans per home contest.
Illinois State leads the all-time series, 38-28, including a 23-6 lead in games played in Normal. ISU has won 2 in a row in the series and has won the last 4 games at Redbird Arena.
After the Bears took 2-out-of-3 meetings in 2013-14, ISU swept the 2014-15 series, including a 67-57 win in Normal on Jan. 28, 2015 in the most-recent meeting. In that game, MSU committed a season-high 17 turnovers and was out-rebounded by the Redbirds, 36-26. Camyn Boone led the Bears with 13 points.
ISU comes into the game with three wins in its last four games, and Dan Muller's club is 5-2 at Redbird Arena this winter. DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell (Sr., Orlando, Fla.) leads ISU with 15.5 points per game to go with 4.5 rebounds.
The Redbirds are among the nation's top 100 teams in total blocks with 51 (MSU has 54) and 84 steals (MSU has 74). ISU is a 61-percent free throw shooting team and a 41-percent field goal shooting team.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 62-79 (.440) in his fifth season at MSU and 64-102 (.373) in his sixth season overall as a head coach. He is 30-42 in MVC games (21-15 at home, 9-27 on the road), 2-4 in MVC Tournament games and 30-33 against all non-conference foes (20-11 at JQH Arena, 9-12 away and 1-10 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 41-26 at home, 18-39 on the road, and 3-14 at neutral sites. Lusk is 3-6 vs. Illinois State and 0-4 against the Redbirds in Normal.
The 44-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 17th 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.
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 that same year. He was also named one of the Top 25 high-major assistants by FoxSports.com in 2010, and CollegeSportsMadness.com named him MVC coach of the year in 2012. He is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame after scoring 2,743 points during a highly-touted prep career at Wesclin High in New Baden, Ill. He went on to play 107 college games at Iowa and Southern Illinois, earning All-MVC second-team honors in 1994 for the Salukis.
Cardiac Kids Strike Again vs. IUPUI
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Missouri State overcame a 14-point, first-half deficit on Dec. 10 to score an 88-74 win over visiting IUPUI at JQH Arena. Camyn Boone (Sr., Mesa, Ariz.) scored a career-high 24 points and snagged 10 rebounds in the win while starting the decisive 18-2 run in the second half that got MSU back on top. The Bears outscored the Jaguars 55-32 in the second half, turned the ball over just twice in that span and fired at an impressive 59 percent clip (17-for-29) while making all 17 foul shots over the final 20 minutes.
Hot Shots Avenge Early-Season Loss
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Missouri State shot 53.3 percent from the field and jumped out to an 18-2 lead in its Dec. 16 victory over Oral Roberts at JQH Arena. The impressive 85-66 win avenged the Bears' season-opening loss at ORU and gave the Bears their first 50-percent shooting performance since Feb. 25, 2014 -- 44 games. MSU also got a career-high 27 points from Camyn Boone (Sr., Mesa, Ariz.) in the impressive home victory.
The Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences have revived a Challenge Series that will feature head-to-head competition between 10 MWC and 10 MVC teams this season. The MWC won the last Challenge Series in 2012 (6-3). MWC teams now have an all-time 28-17 edge in Series games from 2009-15. The Mountain West won this year's series, 6-4:
- Air Force at Southern Illinois SIU, 77-75
- Illinois State at San Diego State SDSU, 71-60
- Colorado State at UNI CSU, 84-78
- Wyoming at Indiana State INS, 70-55
- Loyola at New Mexico NM, 75-51
- Utah State at Missouri State, USU 69-68
- UNLV at Wichita State, WSU 56-50
- Drake at Nevada, Nevada 79-71
- Bradley at Boise State, BSU 90-70
- Evansville at Fresno State, UE 85-77
Missouri State is now 1-3 all-time in the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge.
The Bears kick off a two-game home stand on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Evansville at JQH Arena in a regionally-televised game on FOX Sports Midwest. The Bears then take on the league's giant killer Northern Iowa on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m at The Q.
