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Missouri State

Gaige Prim

Bears Head to Valpo for Weekend Valley Set

January 06, 2021

By: MSU Athletics Communications
GAMES 8-9 - Missouri State Bears (6-1, 3-1 MVC) at Valparaiso Crusaders (3-5, 0-0 MVC)
Dates and Times Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021 (1:00 p.m.) | Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021 (1:00 p.m.)
Location Athletics-Recreation Center (ARC) (5,000) | Valparaiso, Ind.
Tickets Tickets are not available for this series
Radio KWTO (101.3 FM) (Art Hains, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live
Television ESPN+ (Todd Ickow, David Huseman) | Watch Saturday | Watch Sunday
Series Missouri State leads 19-10 | Last Meeting: Valpo 89, MSU 82 (3/7/20) | Box Score
Live Stats Game 1 Live Stats | Game 2 Live Stats
Media Coach Ford Media Availability (1/7)
Game Notes Missouri State | Valparaiso | MVC Notebook | MSU Record Book
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears | #BearsUnite
Up Next The Bears return to JQH Arena, Jan. 17-18 to take on Drake | Tickets

The Ten Count
  • Missouri State looks to continue its hot start in the Missouri Valley Conference this weekend when the Bears travel to Valpo for a two-game league series, Saturday and Sunday, at the ARC in Valparaiso, Indiana. The Bears are off to a 6-1 start for the first time since the 2013-14 season, a campaign that saw MSU win eight of its first nine contests.
  • Sophomore Isiaih Mosley (G/F, Columbia, Mo.) is this week's MVC Player of the Week after he became the first Bear in 25 seasons to score 20 points in five straight games. He averaged 24.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the two-week span, including a career-high 29 points against Indiana State on Jan. 3. The last Bear to record five straight 20-point games was Johnny Murdock (Jan. 30-Feb. 11, 1995).
  • The Bears boast the top two scorers in The Valley and three of the top 12. Mosley (22.1 ppg) and Gaige Prim (17.7) rank 1-2 in the league headed into the weekend, while Ja'Monta Black (13.4) ranks 12th.
  • Mosley was also named College Sports Madness National High Major Player of the Week on Jan. 4. He has scored in double figures in all 7 games this year and 11-of-12 contests, dating back to last season. He also ranks No. 6 nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (8.2), which leads all Valley players.
  • Gaige Prim (Sr., Aurora, Colo.) has scored in double figures in 20 straight games. He posted the Bears first double-double of the season on Jan. 2 vs. Indiana State with 22 points and 11 rebounds. It was his 11th career double-double and 9th 20-point game (4th this season).
  • Keaton Hervey (Jr., Cedar Park, Texas) scored in double figures twice in the Indiana State series. He posted a season-high 15 points on Saturday, going 4-of-6 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from long range, before contributing 11 points on Sunday against the Sycamores. After an 0-for-6 start from 3-point range to begin the year, Hervey has made 7 of his last 10 attempts from beyond the arc.
  • Ja'Monta Black (So., Columbia, Mo.) continues to lead the MVC in 3-point field goals made per game (3.3), which ranks 23rd among all Division I players. He also leads the MVC in minutes played per game (35.0).
  • Demarcus Sharp (Jr., Charleston, Mo.) posted 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the Jan. 2 win over Indiana State, his first double-figure scoring game at MSU. Sharp also dished out 4 assists and recorded a pair of blocks in the game.
  • The Bears rank No. 5 nationally in 2-point field percentage (.621) headed into the week. Missouri State has made 133-of-214 shots from inside the arc in 2020-21 with the team boasting 50-percent shooting efforts in 5-of-7 games. Kenpom also ranks the Bears 11th nationally in Effective FG% (.577), which factors in the extra value of a made 3-pointer.
  • Missouri State debuted at No. 81 in Monday's first installment of the NCAA's men's basketball NET rankings for the 2020-21 season. The MVC has three teams ranked in the top 100, including Drake (20), Loyola (58) and the Bears.
  • In Wednesday's NCAA rankings, Prim ranks 8th nationally in FG% (.676), 33rd in blocks (2.14) and 40th in offensive rebounds. (3.29) per game. Mosley ranks 12th in scoring (22.1), 54th in FG% (.568) and 59th in FT% (.878).
Coach Dana Ford
  • Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 38-34 (.528) in his third season as Missouri State head coach, including a 27-8 ledger at JQH Arena, 9-20 record in away games, and 2-6 mark at neutral sites. He is now 95-99 (.490) in his seventh season as a head coach. He is 2-3 against Valparaiso (1-1 at Valpo).
  • Ford was named to ESPN's College Basketball 40 Under 40 list this season. Ford was No. 35 on the 2020-21 rankings compiled by the ESPN staff to highlight the nation's top young head and assistant college basketball coaches.
  • Last year, Ford engineered a solid season finish that saw the Bears go 9-9 in the MVC and upset third-seeded Indiana State in the Valley Tournament quarterfinals. MSU matched or out-rebounded 24-of-33 opponents, including nine of their last 10, to finish 25th nationally in rebound margin (6.2). The Bears also posted their second-best free throw percentage (.749) of the program's Division I era and had their highest scoring average in league games (71.6) in 10 years. The Bears also boasted two All-MVC performers for the second year in a row with second team selection Keandre Cook and third-teamer Gaige Prim, who also earned MVC All-Newcomer Team laurels.
  • In his first season in Springfield in 2018-19, Ford led the Bears to a tie for third place (10-8) in The Valley with the program's first winning conference record 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 AP Top 25 poll in 2016-17.
  • Ford, 36, 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 (Rockets) and Fred Van Vleet (Raptors).
Series History
  • In a series that started in 1967, Missouri State leads the rivalry, 19-10. The Bears are 9-4 all-time in Valparaiso, 8-5 in Springfield (2-3 at JQH Arena) and 2-1 at neutral sites against the Crusaders.
  • The teams first met in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals in Evansville with the Bears prevailing, 86-72 on their way to a national runner-up finish under coach Bill Thomas.
  • In 1983, the series resumed with the teams joining the Mid-Continent Conference where the Bears went 13-3 against the Crusaders, including a 7-1 ledger in Valparaiso. In fact, the only time Valpo defeated the Bears at home during the AMCU era, was a 79-74 triple-overtime affair at the ARC on 1/28/85.
  • The squads met four times as non-conference foes from 2011 to 2016 with Valparaiso winning all four in that span, including two wins at the ARC. Valparaiso's 80-67 win over the Bears on 2/19/11 in the ESPN BracketBusters series likely kept the MVC regular-season champion Bears out of the NCAA Tournament.
  • Since Valparaiso joined the MVC in 2017-18, the teams have met eight times with the Bears holding a 5-3 edge. The Bears are 2-1 at the ARC in that span, 2-1 at JQH Arena and 1-1 at the MVC Tournament.
  • Last year, Valpo won 2-of-3 against the Bears, including an 89-74 decision at Valpo and an 89-82 game in St. Louis in the MVC Semifinals (3/7/20) in the most-recent meeting between the teams. BOX SCORE
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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