Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Missouri State

2017-18 Seniors

Basketball Bears Entertain Bradley on Senior Night

February 19, 2018

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAME 30 - Missouri State Bears (17-12, 7-9 MVC) vs. Bradley Braves (18-11, 8-8 MVC)
Date and Time Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 | 7:00 p.m.
Location JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo.
Tickets Bradley Tickets
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television FOX Sports Midwest (Scott Warmann, Rich Zvosec) | MVC TV Network | ESPN3
Series Missouri State leads, 37-21 | Last Meeting: BU 72, MSU 52 (1/23/18) | Box Score
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Bradley | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears
Up Next The Bears conclude their 2017-18 regular season Saturday at Northern Iowa (1 p.m. on ESPN3)
Promotions All available lower-level tickets are just $15 | Senior Night | Bradley Tickets

Missouri State concludes its 2017-18 home slate Wednesday at 7 p.m., when the Bears take on Bradley on senior night for five MSU senior players.

Series History
  • The series between the Bears and Braves began when MSU joined The Valley for the 1990-91 season. Missouri State leads the rivalry, 37-21, with seven wins in the last 10 meetings.
  • The clubs split the regular-season series last year with the Bears winning the opener, 76-62, in Springfield (Jan. 21). MSU used a 10-0 run late in the second half to gain their 100th win at JQH Arena. Dequon Miller led the home side with a career-high 24 points, while Alize Johnson posted 13 points and 13 rebounds. Donte Thomas led BU with 17 points. In the rematch in Peoria (Feb. 22), the Braves won a 77-68 decision. Bradley used a 14-2 run late in the second half to secure the win. Miller again scored a career high for MSU with 26 points, while Johnson and Jarrid Rhodes scored 13 apiece.
  • Earlier this season in Peoria (Jan. 23), Bradley used a 16-0 run over a key seven-minute stretch in the second half to extend a one-point lead to 17 and never looked back in a 72-52 win. The Braves would eventually lead by as many as 20 as the Braves improved to 11-0 at home. For MSU, Ronnie Rousseau III shared team-high honors with Jarrid Rhodes, each scoring 10 points. Obediah Church snagged a team-high 9 rebounds to go with 8 points. Darrell Brown scored 20 for Bradley with freshman teammate Elijah Childs posting 12 points and 12 boards.. Box Score
The Ten Count
  • MSU will honor its five seniors prior to the Bradley game. Second-year seniors Alize Johnson, Jarrid Rhodes and Ronnie Rousseau III join senior newcomers J.T. Miller and Tanveer Bhullar in pregame ceremonies. As a class, MSU's seniors have accounted for 1,171 points this season -- or 57.6 percent of MSU's scoring. The quintet has collectively produced 3,242 points in 361 career ball games at the Division I level.
  • Alize Johnson (Sr., Williamsport, Pa.) enters the week ranked 3rd nationally in total rebounds (338), 6th in rebounding average (11.7), 4th in defensive rebounds (8.48) and 3rd in double-doubles (19) -- all tops in the MVC.
  • During their Division I era (since 1982-83), the Bears are 31-4 on Senior Night, including a 6-3 mark at JQH Arena. Only Valparaiso (1989), Creighton (2009), Indiana St. (2012) & Wichita (2017) have beeaten MSU on a DI Senior Night.
  • Johnson has led Missouri State in rebounding 49 times in his 62-game career in Springfield. The Bears are 6-7 over the last two seasons when someone other than Johnson leads the club in rebounds.
  • Ryan Kreklow (Jr., Columbia, Mo.) is just 1 three-pointer away from landing in the program's all-time top 10. He has 111 career 3-pointers and would catch Allen Phillips (1998-2000), Dale Lamberth (2005-08) and Dequon Miller (2015-17) in the log jam for the No. 10 position with one more trey.
  • Sunday's loss to Drake's was MSU's sixth this season by four points or less -- and fourth in conference play. The Bears are 22-23 in narrow decisions -- games decided by four points or less -- over the last five seasons.
  • Mustafa Lawrence (Fr., Newark, N.J.) is averaging 11.0 points with 17 3-pointers over the last 6 games, including four games scoring in double figures. He scored a total of 13 points in the team's first 23 games this season. The freshman standout is coming off a career-high 8 assists vs. Drake on Sunday, the most by any MSU player this year.
  • Alize Johnson's 36 career double-doubles matches the second-best career total in the MVC in the last 20 years. Only Evansville's Egidijus Mockevicius (57) has more double-doubles in that span. "Zay's" 19 double-doubles this season have now surpassed Lee Campbell (1989-90) for MSU's most during the program's DI era.
  • Alize Johnson is now 63 points shy of becoming the school's 29th 1,000-point scorer (and fifth two-year player to do so). With his current scoring average (15.5 ppg), he needs 4 games to have a shot at that rare scoring milestone.
  • Since losing Reggie Scurry (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) and Abdul Fofana (So., Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso) to injuries from a cryotherapy treatment incident on Jan. 22, the Bears are 2-6. MSU was 15-6 prior to those injuries.
Coach Paul Lusk
  • Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 105-118 (.471) in his seventh season at MSU and 107-141 (.431) in his eighth season overall as a head coach.  He is 52-72 in MVC games (35-27 at home, 17-45 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 67-40 at home, 29-60 on the road, and 9-18 at neutral sites. Lusk is 9-4 all-time against Bradley (6-0 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.

 
Print Friendly Version

Sponsors