Feb. 23, 2015
Missouri State Game Notes 
|Bradley Game Notes |MVC Weekly Notebook
- Christian Kirk (Sr., Springfield, Mo.) ranks 72nd on MSU's career scoring list with 688 points and is tied for 9th on for games played (122). Kirk has made 51 career starts and ranks 6th on the JQH Arena career scoring list (401) and rebounding list (206) with 24 double-figure scoring games and 29 career dunks.
- The Bears are 29-3 on Senior Night since 1982-83, including a 4-2 mark at JQH Arena and 2-0 mark against Bradley in that span. Only Valparaiso (1989), Creighton (2009) and Indiana St. (2012) have beaten MSU on a DI Senior Night.
- Austin Ruder (So., Nixa, Mo.) needs 3 points to reach 500 for his career (61 games). He has multiple 3-pointers in two of the Bears' last three games.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) is coming off his first career double-double at Drake, which was also the team's first double-double of the season. He is shooting .617 and averaging 9.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in league games.
- After participating in Senior Night activities Wednesday against Bradley, Ron Mvouika (Sr., Paris, France) will undergo back surgery on Thursday. Mvouika has played in 2 games this year (20 min.) and has missed the last 25 games.
- With a number of seeding possibilities still in the balance, the Bears can rank between 7th and 10th for next week's MVC Tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The Bears are 4-1 all-time in the MVC Thursday play-in round.
- Bradley, which beat MSU in Peoria, 61-59, on Jan. 24, has not swept the season series against MSU since 2008-09.
- In the previous meeting between the teams (1/24/15), Chris Kendrix (Fr., Willard, Mo.) went 4-for-4 from 3-point range and finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds in Peoria. He has 3 double-figure scoring games in the team's last 4.
- MSU has won the last 5 meetings at home against Bradley and is 19-4 all-time in Springfield against the Braves.
- The Bears are shooting .745 at the line at home this season and have made 70% or better at the line 4 straight games.
The series between the Bears and Braves is a farily-young one with the teams first squaring off in MSU's first season in The Valley (1990-91). The Bears own a 33-19 series lead and have seven of the last nine overall and five straight at JQH Arena.
MSU swept last season's series, including a 74-61 win at JQH Arena (2/1/14) in which the home side hit 12 3-pointers and were led by Jarmar Gulley with 19 points and Austin Ruder with 13.
Earlier this year in Peoria (1/24/15), the Bears got 15 points from Ruder, 14 from Camyn Boone and 13 from Chris Kendrix in a narrow 61-59 loss. BU got to the foul line 28 times to overcome a 34-26 MSU rebounding edge.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 57-69 (.456) in his fourth season at MSU and 59-92 (.393) in his fifth season overall as a head coach. He is 29-41 in MVC games (20-15 at home, 9-26 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 37-23 in all home games, 17-36 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. Lusk is 5-2 against Bradley, including a 3-0 mark 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.
Geno Ford (Ohio, 1997) has three starters and seven lettermen on the roster from last year's 12-20 club. The Braves rank 50th nationally in scoring defense (60.9) and rank 3rd in the MVC in turnover margin (+0.8) and rebounds per game (33.1). Warren Jones (Jr., G) scored 16 against MSU earlier this year and averages 12.5 points with 31 3-pointers. Fellow BU newcomer Tramique Sutherland (Jr., G) is averaging 11.6 points with a team-high 64 assists.
What started out like a boxing match with two heavyweights exchanging jabs, quickly turned into a one-sided fight with Drake (9-19, 6-10 MVC) cruising to a 78-43 win over visiting Missouri State (10-18, 4-12) here Sunday in Missouri Valley Conference play.
Senior Gary Ricks, Jr., led four Bulldogs in double figures with 20 points, while Reed Timmer added 17 points for Drake which snapped a two-game losing streak on its senior day celebration.
The Bears were led by Chris Kendrix with 13 points and 6 rebounds, while Camyn Boone secured his first career double-double with 12 points and 10 caroms.
After the teams played even for the first 9 minutes of the first half, Drake reeled off 10 unanswered points to take an 18-8 lead at the 6:15 mark. MSU went more than 8 minutes without scoring, breaking the Bulldogs' momentum temporarily on a layup by Gavin Thurman with 6:02 left in the half.
But the Drake train didn't slow down, adding 9 unanswered points over the next couple of minutes to climb ahead 27-10 before the final media timeout of the half. The Bears would tack on a pair of back-to-back scores by Kendrix and Gavin Thurman to get within 27-14 at the 3-minute mark, but the home club ended the period on an 8-0 run to take a 35-14 lead into the intermission.
The second half showed signs of promise early with Austin Ruder knocking down a 3-pointer for MSU early in the half with Boone and Kendrix getting the Bears back within 43-22 at the first media break. But Drake got it rolling from the perimeter after that, outscoring MSU 10-9 before the under-12 timeout and by a 25-15 margin before the final buzzer.
The Bears were 16-of-57 (.281) from the field and were able to counter with just 3-of-19 (.158) beyond the arc with 8 out of 9 (.889) makes from the line and 33 rebounds.
Drake was 29-of-56 (.518) from the field, 13-of-21 (.619) from long range and 7-of-7 at the line with 35 rebounds and 7 turnovers.
Missouri State concludes the regular season at Loyola Chicago at 3 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 28.
