Feb. 12, 2015
Missouri State Game Notes 
| UNI Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- No. 13-ranked UNI enters the game with 12 straight wins, tops in the MVC and the fifth-longest win streak in the nation.
- Gavin Thurman (Jr., F, Wichita, Kan.) is averaging 11.2 points and 5.4 rebounds over the last 5 contests, including a 12-point effort in his first season start Tuesday at Evansville. He also tallied a career-high 9 rebounds at UE.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) leads all conference players in field goal percentage (.639) in Valley games. He is coming off a career-high 21 points at Evansville on Tuesday and has scored in double figures in 4-of-6 games.
- Shawn Roundtree (Fr., G, Edwardsville, Ill.) has played 40 minutes the last 2 games, filling in for Dorrian Williams as the Bears' starting point guard. He averaged 3.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in that span.
- With recent injuries to starters Dorrian Williams (concussion symptoms) and Christian Kirk (precautionary/health), MSU had just 7 scholarship players in uniform the last 2 games, in addition to recently-added walk-on Ben Denbow (Jr., G, Licking, Mo.), who did not play in either game. Denbow was moved to the active roster on Feb. 6 after being with the team just a week as a practice player.
- Missouri State (10.72) and Northern Iowa (10.84) rank 7th and 8th, respectively over the last five seasons in fewest turnovers per game among all Division I programs. MSU has just 1,693 turnovers in 158 games in that span. (see p. 4).
- The Bears are coming off a .480 (24-for-50) shooting effort at Evansville, their best since Jan. 3 vs. Drake (.481).
- Other than MSU, Northern Iowa has won more games at JQH Arena (5-1) than any other team. Over the last 5 years,
- MSU has narrowly outscored the Panthers at home, 297-295, but has lost 4 times by margins of 1 (twice), 2 & 6 points.
- Gavin Thurman needs 6 points to reach the 500-point milestone for his career (80 games).
UNI (.369) and Missouri State (.418) rank 1st and 3rd, respectively, in FG percentage defense in Valley games.
The Bears and Panthers have been rivals in two different leagues -- the Mid-Continent (1982-90) and The Valley (1991-present) with MSU holding a 40-28 all-time lead in the series.
UNI has swept the season series against the Bears the last two seasons and has reeled off five straight wins against Missouri State, including a 60-46 win in Cedar Falls earlier this winter (1/18/15).
In that game, Seth Tuttle scored 22 points and snagged 10 rebounds, while the Panthers registered 18 offensive rebounds. MSU got 13 points from Austin Ruder and 11 from Dorrian Williams who added 5 assists.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 56-67 (.455) in his fourth season at MSU and 58-90 (.392) in his fifth season overall as a head coach. He is 28-39 in MVC games (19-14 at home, 9-25 on the road), 2-3 in MVC Tournament games and 26-25 against all non-conference foes (17-8 at JQH Arena, 8-10 away and 1-7 at neutral sites). He is also 36-22 in all home games, 17-35 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. Lusk is 1-2 at JQH Arena against and 1-6 overall against UNI.
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.
Ben Jacobson (North Dakota, 1994) returns all five starters and 10 lettermen from a 16-15 club.
Seth Tuttle (Sr., F) averages 16.0 points and 6.6 rebounds while converting 61.8 percent of his shots. Former MSU commit Wes Washpun (Jr., G) is averaging 8.8 points, and Deon Mitchell (Sr., G) is contributing 6.8 points and 54 total assists. UNI's 12-game win streak is the fifth-longest in the nation.
Missouri State gave one of its best road efforts of the season here Tuesday, but home standing Evansville made its free throws down the stretch to hang on for a 73-66 win over the Bears in a classic Missouri Valley Conference clash.
The Bears (9-16, 3-10 MVC) were led by Camyn Boone with a career-high 21 points on 9-of-14 from the field, while Chris Kendrix added 13 - all in the second half - and Gavin Thurman contributed 12 points and a career-high 9 rebounds.
Evansville (17-8, 7-6), which overcome 13 ties and 8 lead changes from the visitors, got 20 points from D.J. Balentine and 17 from Adam Wing to snap a three-game Valley skid.
After Thurman gave the Bears a 51-50 lead with 11:36 to go on a short jumper off the glass, Missouri State went the next 10 minutes without a field goal, while Evansville responded with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to lead 59-51.
A three-point play by Balentine with three-and-a-half minutes to play pushed the home side up 66-57, its biggest of the night, MSU responded with a quick 5-0 MSU outburst. Kendrix hit a foul shot, Boone scored up close with 1:22 on the clock and Loomis Gerring knocked down a 17-footer with 47 ticks to play.
After Blake Simmons made one of two at the line on Evansville's next trip, Shawn Roundtree responded with a quick bucket in traffic for MSU to make it a 67-64 game with 28.3 seconds to play.
But the Purple Aces made all six free throws from there and nullified a late layup by Boone that briefly made it 69-66 at the 17-second mark.
MSU finished 24-of-50 (.480) from the field, its fourth-best shooting effort of the season, while converting 3-of-11 (.273) from beyond the arc and 15-of-21 (.714) at the line with a commanding 36-21 rebounding edge.
Roundtree dished out 6 assists and played all 40 minutes for the second straight game with Dorrian Williams sidelined.
The Aces capitalized on 15 Bears' turnovers with 22 points, while the Bears scored no points off three Evansville turnovers. The Aces were 24-of-51 (.471) from the field, 4-of-15 (.267) from long range and 21-of-27 (.778) at the stripe.
The Bears couldn't have asked for a better start, firing at an even 50-percent clip from the field in the first half to go into the break tied at 30.
Evansville jumped out to a 15-10 lead 8 minutes into the contest, but Thurman squelched that with his second trey of the night, and moments later Boone converted his second "and-one" opportunity of the half to get the Bears back within 17-16.
Mislav Brzoja hit a short jumper on the Aces' next possession, but Missouri State reeled off six unanswered points and eventually closed out a 10-3 run with a Boone layup to lead 26-22 with 3:33 left in the opening period.
Loomis Gerring and Tyler McCullough both scored go-ahead buckets for Missouri State just before the half, but Evansville knotted the score for the sixth time on a pair of controversial free throws by Adam Wing with 32 seconds to go.
Missouri State hosts Indiana State on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m., on ESPN3 | Tickets for ISU Game
