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Missouri State

Ronnie Rousseau

Bears Set to Battle Valpo on New Year's Eve

December 28, 2017

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 15 - Missouri State Bears (11-3, 1-0 MVC) vs. Valparaiso Crusaders (9-5, 0-1 MVC)
Date and Time Sunday, December 31, 2017 | 3:00 p.m.
Location Athletics Recreation Center (5,000) | Valparaiso, Ind.
Tickets Valparaiso Game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Corey Riggs, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television KOZL-TV (Tom Ackerman, Kelby Stuckey) | MSU TV Network | ESPN3
Series Missouri State leads 14-7 | Last Meeting: Valpo 84, MSU 81 (12/10/16)
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Valparaiso | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears return to JQH Arena on Jan. 4 to play Northern Iowa (8 p.m.) | Tickets for UNI Game
Promotions All bleacher tickets for the UNI game are just $5 at JQH Arena Box Office and via phone.

The Missouri State Bears return to Missouri Valley Conference action Sunday afternoon (3 p.m.) at Valparaiso in a key league road game.

Series History
  • Missouri State leads the all-time series between the former Mid-Continent rivals, 14-7. The Bears are 7-3 all-time on the road in the series but have not won in Valparaiso since 1990.
  • Last season at JQH Arena (Dec. 10, 2016), Valparaiso senior Alec Peters was sent to the line for three free throws with 5.6 seconds to go and finished with 27 points to lift the Crusaders past MSU, 84-81. The Bears tied the game on a free throw by Alize Johnson with 14 seconds left and seemed to have Peters pinned down beyond the arc in the deciding moments with Obediah Church applying defensive pressure. Peters pump-faked, and Church was whistled for a three-shot foul to gift wrap the winning points for the visitors. Johnson scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to collect his fourth double-double of the season. Ronnie Rousseau III also scored 21 points for the Bears. Box Score

The Ten Count
  • MSU's Alize Johnson (Sr., Williamsport, Pa.) is this week's Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week. It is Johnson's third career MVC POW honor. He posted a pair of double-doubles as part of a 2-0 week for the Bears, leading MSU in scoring twice with a game-high 24 points in the MVC opening win over Loyola behind a career-best five 3-pointers. He averaged 18.0 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.0 assits on the week, making 41.7 percent of his 3-pointers.
  • Bears' head coach Paul Lusk is 1 win away from his 100th at Missouri State. He picked up his 100th career victory -- including his one season at Dubuque -- on Dec. 19, 2017 with a 66-50 win over Wright State at JQH Arena.
  • In last year's meeting between the Bears and Crusaders, MSU was led by Alize Johnson (Williamsport, Pa.) and Ronnie Rousseau III (CIncinnati, Ohio) who both registered 21 points in the 84-81 defeat. Both efforts were career highs at the time, while Johnson posted his fourth of 17 double-doubles on the season with 11 boards.
  • Two Bears, Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) and Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.), both reached 500 career points in MSU's win over Loyola (12/22/17). Kreklow (74 games) and Church (77 games) join teammates J.T. Miller (1050 points), Alize Johnson (693), and Jarred Dixon (631) who have already surpassed 500 career points.
  • MSU has out-rebounded 13 of 14 opponents this season with double-figure offensive rebounds in 12 games. MSU ranks 25th nationally in rebound margin (+8.3). Including last season, the Bears have matched or out-rebounded 39 of their last 47 foes.
  • Johnson is just 2 rebounds away from 500 for his career. He has led MSU in rebounding 36 times and reached double figures in rebounds 27 times during his 47-game career. He would become the 37th Bear to snag 500 career boards.
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) has started the last two games for the Bears. He is coming off 10 points, 5 rebounds and a career-high 5 assists with a pair of 3-pointers in MSU's win over Loyola.
  • Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) averaged 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game off the bench last week in just 16.5 minutes, while helping the Bears to a 2-0 week. He notched a career-high 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting with 7 rebounds in the club's win over Loyola in the MVC opener.
  • Over the last two seasons, the Bears are 12-4 in the month of December. MSU was 7-3 last year in the final month of the year and has gone 5-1 this December.

Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 99-109 (.476) in his seventh season at MSU and 101-132 (.433) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 46-63 in MVC games (31-24 at home, 15-39 on the road), 4-6 in MVC Tournament games and 49-40 against all non-conference foes (32-13 at JQH Arena, 12-15 away and 5-12 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 63-37 at home, 26-54 on the road, and 9-18 at neutral sites. Lusk is 0-3 all-time against Valparaiso (0-1 at Valparaiso).
  • 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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