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Bears Begin Road Swing at No. 21 Xavier

Bears Begin Road Swing at No. 21 Xavier

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MSU Athletics Communications

GAME 4 - Missouri State Bears (2-1) at #21 Xavier Musketeers (3-0)
Date and Time Friday, November 15, 2019 | 6:01 p.m. (Central)
Location Cintas Center (10,224) | Cincinnati, Ohio
Tickets Xavier Game | Future Home Games
Radio KTXR (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television FOX Sports MW Plus (Springfield) (Matt Schumacker, Dickey Simpkins) | Where to Watch
Series First meeting
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Xavier | MVC Notebook | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears | #BearUp
Up Next The Bears travel to the Charleston (S.C.) Classic, Nov. 21-24 | Tickets

The Ten Count
  • On Friday, Missouri State begins a five-game stretch away from home when the Bears take on No. 21-ranked Xavier University at Cintas Center (10,224) in Cincinnati (6 p.m., Central). Both teams then travel to Charleston, S.C., next week for three bracketed games at the Charleston Classic. The Bears wrap the road swing Nov. 29 at LSU.
  • Lamont West (Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio) needs just 25 points to reach 1,000 for his career. West scored 945 points in 109 games at West Virginia before transferring to MSU this season. He also has 359 career rebounds and 157 3-pointers.
  • Bears sophomore Jared Ridder (Springfield, Mo.) originally committed to Xavier University during the 2016 early signing period, He left the program on Sept. 22, 2017 and returned to his hometown to attend Missouri State. Xavier released Ridder from his NLI five days later, at which point he officially joined the MSU program. He sat out a year-and-a-half to satisfy NCAA transfer rules before playing his first game for the Bears on Dec. 15, 2018.
  • MSU is the preseason favorite to win the Missouri Valley for just the second time in its MVC tenure (1990-91 to present).
  • Senior Lamont West, a transfer from West Virginia, is originally from Cincinnati. He attended Withrow University High in Cincy three years before playing his senior season at Miller Grove High School in Lithonia, Ga.
  • Missouri State is 6-38 all-time against teams ranked in the AP Top 25, with its most-recent victory coming with a 77-65 win at No. 21 Creighton on Dec. 28, 2011. This will be coach Dana Ford's first game against a team ranked in the AP Top 25 at Missouri State, although last year his Bears faced Nebraska, which was No. 24 in the USA Today poll at the time.
  • Keandre Cook (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) erupted for a career-high 31 points and flirted with a school 3-point record to help the Bears to a 59-50 win over Alabama State on Sunday. He made 9-of-13 shots overall, 6-of-7 from 3-point range, and 7-of-7 at the foul line. Cook followed that effort with 19 points in MSU's win over Cleveland State on Tuesday.  
  • The Bears boast a pair of returning all-conference players in Tulio Da Silva (Sr., Formiga, Brazil, 14.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and Keandre Cook (Sr., Baltimore, Md., 12.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 48 threes). Da Silva was an All-MVC first-team selection last year and earned MVC Newcomer of the Year honors (the third Bear in four years to earn the distinction). Cook was an All-MVC third-team pick a year ago. Both players were on the 2019 MVC All-Newcomer Team.
  • MSU junior walk-on Spencer Brown (Fayetteville, Ark.), a transfer from Lyon College, has a brother named Xavier.
  • Isiaih Mosley (Fr., Columbia, Mo.) is just the fourth Mr. Show-Me Basketball to play at MSU. Named Missouri's top prep player in 2018-19, Mosley averaged 23.2 points per game as a senior at Rock Bridge HS where he (and fellow MSU teammate Ja'Monta Black) led the Bruins to a 25-3 record and Class 5 state title. The only other Bears to earn the title of Mr. Show-Me Basketball are teammate Jared Ridder (2017), Drew Richards (2004) and Spencer Laurie (2003).
Coach Dana Ford
  • Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 18-17 (.514) in his second season as Missouri State head coach, including a 13-5 ledger at JQH Arena, 5-9 ledger in away games, and 0-3 mark at neutral sites. He is now 75-82 (.478) in his sixth season as a head coach.
  • In his first season in Springfield, Ford led the Bears to a tie for third place (10-8) in the Missouri Valley Conference with the program's first winning record in Valley play since 2011. He guided two players -- Tulio Da Silva (first team) and Keandre Cook (third team) -- to All-MVC honors in addition to three players on the MVC All-Newcomer Team, including Newcomer of the Year Da Silva.
  • 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. He coached five All-OVC players and two OVC All-Newcomer Team selections during his tenure at TSU. 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.
  • Ford, 35, 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 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
  • This is the first-ever meeting between Missouri State and Xavier in men's basketball.
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.
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