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Missouri State

Ryan Kreklow

MSU Set for Mountain West Challenge Game vs. Colorado State

November 26, 2017

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 8 - Missouri State Bears (5-2) vs. Colorado State Rams (3-3)
Date and Time Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017 | 7:00 p.m.
Location JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo.
Tickets Colorado State Game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Ned Reynolds) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television ESPN3 (Scott Warmann, Rich Zvosec) | CSU Game
Series Series tied, 1-1 | Last Meeting: CSU 76, MSU 71 (11/26/14)
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Colorado State | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears take to the road for games at South Dakota State (Saturday, Dec. 2) and North Dakota State (Monday, Dec. 4) before returning to JQH Arena to play Hampton on Friday, Dec. 8.
Ticket Special $5 Upper-level tickets for the Colorado State game. Phone and in-person orders only.

Missouri State wraps up an eight-game November slate -- and a two-game home stand -- Tuesday night when the Bears host Colorado State in the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge with a 7 p.m. tipoff at JQH Arena.

Series History
  • The Bears and Rams have played twice previously, including a first-round matchup at the 2014 Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage (11/26/14). CSU took a 76-61 decision with MSU's Dorrian Williams scoring 16 points and snagging 7 rebounds. No players on the current MSU roster were on that trip.
  • The clubs also met in Fort Collins on 12/27/41 as part of coach Andrew McDonald's December trip through Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado. The Bears won the game, 34-30.

The Ten Count
  • Missouri State wraps up an eight-game November slate -- and a two-game home stand -- Tuesday night when the Bears host Colorado State in the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge. MSU is 1-4 all-time in the Challenge (1-2 at JQH Arena) with a one-point loss to Utah State (12/1/15) in the club's last home game in the series.
  • In his first start since March 4, Jarred Dixon (Jr., Kansas City, Mo.) posted a team-high 13 points in Friday's win over Evangel, going 4-for-6 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. He is averaging 11.9 points per game over his last seven starts, dating back to last season.
  • MSU's J.T. Miller (Sr., Clinton, N.C.) eclipsed 1,000 career points with his first of five buckets in the Evangel win on Friday. The fifth-year transfer from Howard     University scored 930 points with the Bison before coming to Missouri State this season. He had three dunks in Friday's game, and the Bears are 3-0 with him in the starting lineup.
  • Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) is now just 2 blocked shots behind Ed Liliensiek (1977-81) for the No. 2 spot on the program's career list. Church is up to 142 career rejections, just 25 behind MSU career leader Danny Moore (1996-99).
  • Missouri State is getting nearly half its offensive production in the paint this season. The Bears have outscored their opponents by a 256-154 margin in the paint and accounting for 36.6 points per game -- or 49.4 percent of their points.
  • Over the last five games, Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) is averaging 8.6 points and converting 54.3 percent from the field -- 19-of-35.
  • Obediah Church needs 3 assists for 100 in his career, while J.T. Miller needs 1 steal for 100 in his career.
  • MSU is averaging 14.0 offensive boards per game with double-figure offensive caroms in every game this year.
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) has converted 19 straight free throws, dating back to Jan. 24, 2017. He is 12-for-12 at the foul line this season.
  • Missouri State matched or out-rebounded 26 of 33 opponents last season and has picked up that same momentum in 2017-18 by winning the battle of the boards in all seven games. MSU enters the week with a +10,0 rebound margin.
  • Ryan Kreklow is just 11 3-pointers away from 100 for his career (67 games). He would be the 15th Bear to achieve that milestone.

Head Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 93-108 (.463) in his seventh season at MSU and 95-131 (.420) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 45-63 in MVC games (30-24 at home, 15-39 on the road), 4-6 in MVC Tournament games and 44-39 against all non-conference foes (29-13 at JQH Arena, 11-14 away and 4-12 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 59-37 at home, 26-53 on the road, and 8-18 at neutral sites. He is 0-1 against Colorado State (0-1 at neutral site).
  • The 46-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.
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