Basketball Bears Wrap Road Swing Saturday at Oregon State

GAME 8 - Missouri State Bears (3-4) at Oregon State (5-1)
Date and Time	Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 \| 6:00 p.m. (Central)
Location	Gill Coliseum (9,604) \| Corvallis, Ore.
Tickets	Oregon State Game \| Western Kentucky Game
Radio	KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) \| MSU Radio Network \| Listen Live
Television	Pac-12 Network (Ann Schatz, Mary Murphy)
Series	Series Tied, 1-1 \| Last Meeting - MSU 63, OSU 48 (12/12/92)
Live Stats	Live Stats
Game Notes	Missouri State \| Oregon State \| MVC Notebook \| MSU Media Guide
Follow	Facebook \| Athletics Twitter \| Basketball Twitter \| Instagram \| #MSUBears
Up Next	The Bears return home on Wednesday, Dec. 5 to play Western Kentucky at 7 p.m. \| Tickets

The Ten Count

Missouri State wraps up a three-game road swing Saturday at Oregon State. It marks the Bears' third game against a team from a "Power Five" conference in five contests, and second against a Pac-12 Conference foe in four games.
Bears' senior Josh Webster (G, St. Louis, Mo.) leads the Missouri Valley Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.08), and his 5.3 assists per game ranks second. His team-best 32.7 minutes per game is also the fifth-best in the MVC.
In just seven games, Missouri State has already had four different players score 20 or more points -- four by Keandre Cook (Jr. Baltimore, Md.), and one apiece by Jarred Dixon (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.), Ryan Kreklow (Sr., Columbia, Mo.) and Tulio Da Silva (Jr., Formiga, Brazil).
Senior Jarred Dixon (G, Kansas City, Mo.) needs just 67 points to reach 1,000 for his career. MSU has had 28 1,000-point scorers in its proud history, but none since Kyle Weems reached the milestone in 2011. Dixon has scored in double figures in 11 of his last 13 games. He is also just 6 steals shy of 100 for his career (103 games).
Obediah Church (Sr., Springfield, Ill.), Missouri State's career leader in blocked shots (197), is rapidly approaching 200 rejections, a career milestone achieved by just five players in Missouri Valley Conference history. He is also 3 rebounds shy of 600 for his career (102 games).
Ryan Kreklow (Sr., Columbia, Mo.) scored a career-high 23 points against USC on Nov. 20, making 6-of-11 3-pointers against the Trojans. He scored 11 points in his 100th career game Wednesday at Air Force -- his first start of the year.
South Florida transfer Tulio Da Silva (Formiga, Brazil) scored 22 points in just his second game with the Bears on Wednesday at Air Force. Da Silva was 9-for-12 from the field in the contest. He is now 25 points shy of 500 for his career, which includes 49 games at USF.
MSU is in the middle of a three-and-a-half week stretch away from JQH Arena that includes the team's current three-game road swing as well as the neutral-site Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City (Nov. 19-20). It is the program's longest stretch between home games (Nov. 11 to Dec. 5) since the team's inaugural Division I season in 1982-83.
The Bears have gotten to the free throw line 20 times or more in five of their first seven games, a milestone the team reached just eight times all last season.
Kabir Mohammed (Jr., Lagos, Nigeria) has been the Bears' first sub off the bench in six of seven games. In just 17.1 minutes per game, Mohammed ranks sixth in the Missouri Valley in offensive rebounds with a team-high 15 caroms -- 2.1 per game. He has scored in double figures four times and is averaging 8.9 points per game, all as a reserve.

Coach Dana Ford

Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 3-4 (.429) in his first season at Missouri State, including a 3-0 ledger at JQH Arena. He is now 60-69 (.465) in his fifth season as a head coach and 0-0 all-time vs. Oregon State.
He is the fifth-youngest head coach in NCAA Division I basketball this season (see sidebar).
TheAthletic.com named Bears' head coach Dana Ford to its list of 30 "up and coming coaches to keep an eye on" during its 2018-19 preseason basketball coverage.
He was introduced as Missouri State's 18th men's basketball coach on March 22, 2018 after coaching the previous four seasons at Tennessee State. The native of Tamms, Illinois was 57-65 (.467) at Tennessee State, including a 52-39 ledger in his last three seasons in Nashville.
Ford, 34, was awarded the Ben Jobe Award in 2016 as the nation's top Division I minority coach. That same year, he was named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year and NABC District 19 Coach of the Year after engineering one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA history, swaying Tennessee State from a 5-26 record in his first season to a 20-11 mark in 2015-16.
He coached five All-OVC players in addition to two players recognized on the OVC All-Newcomer Team. Under his leadership, Tennessee State also doubled its home attendance average and twice earned votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll during the 2016-17 season. He has served as an assistant at Tennessee State, Wichita State and Illinois State and was responsible for recruiting future NBA talents such as Robert Covington (Timberwolves) and Fred Van Vleet (Raptors).

Series History

The series between the Bears and Beavers is tied, 1-1, although the teams have not played since 1992.
In the most-recent game (Dec. 12, 2012) at Hammons Student Center in Springfield, MSU was led by 21 points by Johnny Murdock and 14 from Clint Thomas to turn back Oregon State, 71-56. MSU committed just 8 turnovers in the game and out-rebounded OSU by a 33-27 margin.
The teams also met the previous season -- Dec. 14, 1991 -- in Corvallis, with Oregon State prevailing, 72-63. Murdock poured in 22 points to lead the Bears with Tony Graves adding 14. The Beavers shot 54.0 percent from the field and forced 23 MSU turnovers at Gill Coliseum.

Rebound Foundation

Bears' head coach Dana Ford and his wife, Christina, are founders of the Rebound Foundation. The not-for-profit raises funds and awareness to help renew and restore women who have experienced a life of domestic abuse. The foundation provides a stable home and fresh start to abuse victims and their children. The Rebound Foundation currently provides homes in Springfield, Mo., and Chicago, Ill. Rebound Foundation Website.

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