Feb. 26, 2015
Missouri State Game Notes 
| Loyola Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook
- Christian Kirk (Sr., Springfield, Mo.) posted 16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 dunks and drew a charge on his Senior Night against Bradley. It was his 25th career double-figure scoring game, which pushed him over 700 career points.
- The Bears are 11-2 when shooting a higher field goal percentage than their opponents this season and 10-5 when shooting a higher free throw percentage.
- Austin Ruder (So., Nixa, Mo.) has multiple 3-pointers in three of the Bears' last four games and is coming off his fourth career 20-point game in Wednesday's win over Bradley.
- Camyn Boone (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) is averaging 11.6 points per game over the last 10 games with 6 double-figure scoring games in that span.
- Chris Kendrix (Fr., Willard, Mo.) has posted 3 straight double-figure games and is averaging 15.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in that span.
- Kendrix played 55 minutes in Wednesday's win in over Bradley, the most by any MSU player since 1987.
- Missouri State's 28 field goals against Bradley were its most since scoring 30 FG against Washington St. (11/29/14).
- The Bears are seeking their fourth road win of the season and first since a Dec. 31 win in Carbondale over SIU. Missouri State has also defeated Alaska-Anchorage (11/28/14) and SEMO (12/13/14) on the road this season.
- MSU will be the No. 8 seed for next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis and play an opening-round game against Bradley or Southern Illinois at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday, March 5.
- Including Wednesday's win over Bradley, Paul Lusk's squad has overcome eight deficits for victory this year. The Bears have also turned three double-figure deficts into victories and flipped four halftime deficits.
The Bears and Ramblers have played just four times -- three times as Valley foes. Loyola won a 1964 matchup in Chicago before the teams renewed the rivalry 50 years later when LUC joined the MVC last season.
The teams split last year's series before the Ramblers squeaked out a 53-50 win at JQH Arena earlier this month (2/4/15). In that game, MSU erased a 15-point second-half deficit to lead by 2 with 6:18 to go, but faded down the stretch. Gavin Thurman ignited the MSU offense with 15 points, while Camyn Boone scored 13. Boone also helped MSU gain a 34-22 rebounding advantage with his game-high 7 rebounds. Loyola was led by Earl Peterson and Ben Richardson with 12 points apiece.
Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 58-69 (.457) in his fourth season at MSU and 60-92 (.395) in his fifth season overall as a head coach. He is 30-41 in MVC games (21-15 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 38-23 in all home games, 17-36 on the road, and 3-10 at neutral sites. Lusk is 1-2 against Loyola, including an 0-1 mark in Chicago.
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.
Porter Moser (Creighton, 1990) returned four starters and six lettermen from a 10-22 squad and has turned the corner this season to win 17 games. The Ramblers have won three of their last five and are 8-6 at Gentile Arena this season.
Loyola's top two scorer -- Milton Doyle (So., G) has been battling injuries, but the Ramblers got 20 points apiece from junior Earl Peterson (7.9 ppg) and senior Christian Thomas (11.2 ppg) in Wednesday's 80-75 overtime win at Drake.
Loyola ranks 19th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.397) -- third in the MVC -- behind just 6.1 treys per night and is 14th among all Division I programs in fewest fouls per game (15.2).
Missouri State (11-18, 5-12 MVC) rallied from a seven-point deficit in the game's second overtime to clip visiting Bradley, 80-77, here Wednesday in a triple-overtime thriller on Senior Night at JQH Arena.
MSU's lone senior, Christian Kirk, finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, but it was sophomore Austin Ruder who sparked the comeback. Ruder finished with 20 points behind five 3-pointers, including a clutch trey from the right corner to tie the game, 69-69, with 5.1 seconds left in the second overtime.
Ruder then opened up the third overtime with a trey to make it 72-69 before fouling out less than a minute later.
Bradley (8-22, 3-14) regrouped and regained the lead briefly with free throws by Warren Jones and Josh Cunningham. Cunningham, who finished with 15 points and a JQH Arena record 21 rebounds, pushed the Braves ahead 73-72 with 2:28 left in the third extra period.
But after Loomis Gerring tied the game near the 2-minute mark with a free throw, Shawn Roundtree, Jr., turned the tides for good, stripping the ball from Ka'Darryl Bell and racing to the rim for a layup and one to give MSU a 76-73 advantage with 1:53 to go.
After an MSU defensive stop on Bradley's next possession, Cunningham drew the visitors to within 76-75 with a dunk in the final 26 seconds before Chris Kendrix and Gerring iced the win with four unanswered free throws to secure the .
Kendrix finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds to go with a JQH Arena record 55 minutes played.
The Bears finished with eight 3-pointers for the night, their most since Dec. 17, and finished 8-of-27 (.296) from bonus distance to go with a .431 (28-for-65) overall performance from the field. Missouri State snagged 43 rebounds to help overcome a season-high 19 turnovers and went just 7-of-13 from the foul line in the three overtime periods.
Bradley, which also got 20 points from Tramique Sutherland and 12 from Jones, pulled down 46 rebounds with 14 turnovers. The Braves dropped their fifth straight and finished 28-of-71 (.394) from the field, 2-of-18 (.111) from long range and 19-of-31 (.613) at the line.
The longest game ever at JQH Arena was Missouri State's longest since a four-overtime win at Kansas State on Dec. 8, 1987. In its history, MSU had never played beyond double overtime at home, but lost previous triple-overtime road games at Valparaiso (Jan. 28, 1985) and Illinois State (Feb. 17, 1970).
After shooting an even 50-percent in the first half to lead 32-23 at the break and by as many as 14 in the opening stanza, Missouri State made just 5-of-21 (.238) shots in the second half. With the door of opportunity opened for it, Bradley outscored MSU by a 27-18 margin in the second 20 minutes of action while shooting 48 percent from the field to push overtime.
After Sutherland tied the game, 50-50, on a layup with 20.3 seconds to go in regulation, Missouri State set up the potential winning play on its final possession, but Dorrian Williams ran into traffic and turned the ball over to force extended play.
The Bears never led in the first overtime period, but got game-tying buckets on a floater by Williams, a 3-pointer by Ruder and a layup by Kirk with 55 seconds left to make it a 58-58 contest.
Missouri State had the final possession of the first overtime after a blocked shot by Kendrix, but Gerring couldn't find the mark on a 3-point attempt as time expired.
In the second OT, Bradley scored the first 7 points to lead 65-58 before 3-pointers by Ruder and Gavin Thurman sandwiched a tip-in by Kirk as part of an 8-1 Bears' run in the span of 64 seconds to knot the game at 66. BU made 3 free throws in the final minute, but Ruder sprang loose for the game-tying shot in the right corner to force the third overtime.
Missouri State will play in the 8 vs. 9 game at the MVC Tournament in St. Louis on Thursday, March 5, with a 6:05 p.m. tipoff against Bradley or Southern Illinois.
