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Missouri State

Reggie Scurry

Bears Return to JQH Friday to Battle Hampton

December 06, 2017

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 11 - Missouri State Bears (8-2) vs. Hampton Pirates (4-6)
Date and Time Friday, Dec. 8, 2017 | 7:00 p.m.
Location JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo.
Tickets Hampton Game
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television ESPN3 (Tom Ladd, Kelby Stuckey) | Hampton Game
Series MSU leads Hampton, 1-0 | Last Meeting: MSU 81, HU 67 (11/24/13)
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Hampton | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears travel to Oral Roberts on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Tulsa.
Promotions Insomnia Cookies to First 1,000 Fans | Santa Meet and Greet in Lobby, 6-7 p.m.

The Bears put a six-game win streak on the line when they return home Friday evening to take on Hampton at JQH Arena (7 p.m.). Santa will be available in the JQH lobby from 6-7 p.m., and the first 1,000 fans get a free Insomnia Cookie.

Series History
  • This is just the second meeting all-time between the Bears and Pirates. Missouri State scored an 81-67 win at JQH Arena over Hampton on Nov. 24, 2013 as part of the Corpus Christi Challenge. Missouri State to 23 points from Jarmar Gulley with Christian Kirk scoring 21 points and snagging 9 rebounds in the victory for MSU. Hampton was led by Deron Powers who posted 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting.

The Ten Count
  • The Bears are riding a six-game win streak, their longest since starting the 2013-14 season 6-0. The last time MSU won seven straight ball games was a nine-game streak that ran from Dec. 18, 2010 to Jan. 16, 2011.
  • Missouri State's 8-2 start is its best through 10 games since 2013-14, also 8-2 under Paul Lusk. Prior to that, the last time the Bears had at least eight wins after their first 10 games was in 2009-10 (10-0).
  • The Bears are 6-0 with J.T. Miller (Sr., Clinton, N.C.) in the starting lineup. He is up to 1,024 career points (93 games).
  • Obediah Church (Jr., Springfield, Ill.) is 22 blocked shot behind MSU career leader Danny Moore (1996-99) for the spot on the program's career list. He has 145 career rejections and also needs just 2 assists to reach 100 for his career.
  • Church's .737 field goal percentage ranks 36th nationally among all Division I players.
  • Over the last four games, Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) is averaging 12.3 points per game -- all off the bench. Scurry has scored 8 points or more in eight straight ball games and is averaging 25.2 points per 40 minutes.
  • Jarrid Rhodes (Sr., Palmetto, Fla.) is scoring 10.7 points per game over the last three games, including a 4-for-4 effort from 3-point range in the club's win over South Dakota State on Saturday in Sioux Falls.
  • Hampton's Jermaine Marrow ranks 13th nationally in assists (69), 20th in assists per game (6.9) and 8th in FGA (174).
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) is just 7 3-pointers away from 100 for his career. He would become the 15th Bear to achieve that milestone. He is also 33 points from 500 for his career.
  • Kreklow was included in Nicole Shea's "My 5" in CollegeInsider.com for the week ending Dec. 2. Kreklow set a career high 20 points in the Bears' win over Colorado State last week and followed that with a career-high 6 rebounds in the win over South Dakota State.
  • MSU's defense ranks 15th nationally in field goal percentage defense (.370), 23rd in scoring defense (62.0) and 64th in 3-point field goal defense (.298). The Bears also rank 24th on the DI circuit in rebound margin (+9.2).
  • The Bears are No. 60 in Thursday's NCAA RPI, just behind USC and Washington St. who are tied for the No. 58 position. TeamRankings.com gives MSU a 36% chance of making the NCAA Tournament. MSU also started the week ranked 15th in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 (prior to the NDSU win).

Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 96-108 (.471) in his seventh season at MSU and 98-131 (.428) 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 47-39 against all non-conference foes (30-13 at JQH Arena, 12-14 away and 5-12 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 60-37 at home, 26-53 on the road, and 9-18 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 all-time against Hampton (1-0 at JQH Arena).
  • 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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