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Basketball Bears Return to Road Wednesday at Saint Mary's

December 05, 2022

By: MSU Athletics Communications
Game 9 - Missouri State Bears (4-4) at  Saint Mary's Gaels (6-3)
Date and Time Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022 | 9:02 p.m. (Central)
Location University Credit Union Pavilion (3,500) | Moraga, Calif.
Tickets SMCGaels.com | (925) 631-4689
Radio KWTO (FM 93.3 / AM 560) (Corey Riggs, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live | Varsity Network
Television Streamed through WCCSports.com | Watch
Series Saint Mary's leads 2-1 | SMC 75, MSU 58 (12/22/21) | Box Score
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | St. Mary's | MVC Weekly Release | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears | #BearsUnite
Up Next MSU Hosts Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:00 p.m. | Tickets

The Ten Count
  • Missouri State returns to the road Wednesday when the Bears travel to Moraga, California to take on Saint Mary's of the WCC for a 9 p.m. (Central) matchup against the nationally-prominent Gaels. It will mark MSU's second straight season playing at SMC's University Credit Union Pavilion in Moraga and the club's third trip to California since 1989.
  • Both Missouri State and Saint Mary's are coming off Saturday losses in which they scored in the 40's. The Bears lost a 58-40 decision to Bradley, while the Gaels dropped a 53-48 contest vs. No.1-ranked Houston.
  • Missouri State is one of just 12 Division I teams that will play on the road in four different time zones during in its non-conference schedule. MSU's trips to BYU (Mountain), Nassau (Eastern), Saint Mary's (Pacific) and Oral Roberts (Central) will conclude a non-MVC slate that will take the Bears some 11,812 air and ground miles. 
  • Over the last three seasons, the Bears are 44-22 overall, 14-5 in Valley road games and 16-8 in true road games. No other Missouri Valley Conference team has as many road wins in that span as MSU. 
  • The countdown to 1,000 career points has begun for Donovan Clay (Sr., Alton, Ill.). Clay is currently at 965 points in 105 games (including 63 games at Valparaiso) and starts the week needing 35 points to reach 1,000.  
  • The Bears are coming off back-to-back games with 10 or more steals for the first time since Feb. 29 to March 6, 2020 after securing 11 takeaways at UIC (Nov. 30) and 10 vs. Bradley (Dec. 3). The last time MoState had 10 or more steals in three straight games was Dec. 16-22, 2006.
  • Missouri State starts the week ranked No. 138 in KenPom, while Saint Mary's is No. 27.  
  • Kendle Moore (Sr., Danville, Ill.) has played against Saint Mary's twice during his time at Colorado State. In Moraga (12/19/20), Moore had 6 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in a 53-33 loss before scoring 7 points with a rebound and 2 steals a year later (12/4/21) in Fort Collins in a 74-58 Rams win. For his career, Kendle is 5-for-7 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers against the Gaels. 
  • Dalen Ridgnal (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) is 3 rebounds away from 100 for his NCAA career. The transfer from Georgia has played in 36 career Division I games.
  • Donovan Clay is sitting at 49 career double-figure scoring games (17 at MSU). The senior co-captain has played 105 career games (42 at MSU) and has scored 10 or more points 17 times as a Bear.
  • MSU ranks 23rd nationally (and tops in the MVC) in scoring defense (59.0), while ranking 51st nationally and 2nd in the MVC in FG percentage defense (.392). 
  • Last season at Saint Mary's, Donovan Clay made 4-of-5 FG with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks in 32 minutes vs. the Gaels. Dawson Carper (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) saw 8 minutes and scored 2 points (1/1 FG) with a rebound.
  • Bryan Trimble Jr. (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) ranks 65th among active Division I players in career 3-pointers with 203. This season, his 56 3-point FG attempts ranks 95th nationally (5th in MVC), while his 2.25 threes per game leads the team.
The Series
  • Missouri State and Saint Mary's have met three previous times with SMC owning a 2-1 series lead.
  • The Bears and Gaels first met on Nov. 25, 1989 at the Fresno State Coors Light Classic, with the Bears emerging with a 52-35 win. Chris Stange scored 16 points, and Lee Campbell snagged 13 rebounds to lead Missouri State to its best defensive effort of the season. St. Mary's shot just 27 percent (13-of-48) from the field, while the Bears out-rebounded the Gaels, 38-31.
  • On Dec. 23, 2011, Brad Waldow and Matthew Dellavedova scored 17 points apiece to lead Saint Mary's to a 77-61 win in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. Caleb Patterson led MSU with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while Jarmar Gulley scored 14, and Kyle Weems added 11 points and 7 rebounds. MSU led 36-35 with 18:23 left, but a 9-0 run by SMC from there decided the outcome. 
  • In last year's meeting in Moragao (Dec. 22, 2021), Missouri State took a three-point lead into the half, but SMC erupted for 42 points and shot 62 percent in the second half to score a 75-58 win. Isiaih Mosley scored 19 points in the opening half and finished with a team-high 21, while Donovan Clay posted 11 points and 7 rebounds. Saint Mary's got 27 points from Matthias Tass and 16 from Tommy Kuhse. The turning point came with 12-and-a-half minutes to go as Mosley picked up his third foul with the game tied, 46-46, and the Gaels erupted for an 11-0 run over the next three minutes. The Bears were out-rebounded, 34-22, in the game. | Box Score
Coach Dana Ford
  • Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 76-55 (.580) in his fifth season as Missouri State head coach, including a 45-18 ledger at Great Southern Bank Arena, 24-27 record in away games, and 7-11 mark at neutral sites. He is now 133-120 (.526) in his ninth season as a head coach, including four seasons at Tennessee State. Ford is also 45-29 in Valley games (23-14 at home, 22-15 away). 
  • He is 0-1 all-time against Saint Mary's (0-1 on the road).
  • He picked up his 100th career victory on Feb. 7, 2021 at Illinois State (72-62) and coached his 100th game at Missouri State on Dec. 15, 2021 vs. South Dakota State. His win over Oakland on Nov. 27 in The Bahamas was his 75th victory at MSU.
  • CollegeInsider.com recently named Ford one of the dozen "Coaching Names to Remember" for the 2021-22 season.
  • He picked up his 100th career victory on Feb. 7, 2021 at Illinois State (72-62) and coached his 100th game at Missouri State on Dec. 15, 2021 vs. South Dakota State.
  • In a breakout 2021-22 campaign, Missouri State finished the season as one of the nation's most-efficient offensive teams, ranking 2nd nationally in free throw percentage (.797), 14th in field goal percentage (.482) and 23rd in 3-point FG percentage (.374) -- the only DI team to rank in the top 25 in all three. KenPom also rated the Bears 21st in effective FG percentage (54.6) and 23rd in adjusted offensive efficiency (113.2). MSU led the MVC in all of those metrics, except 3-point percentage, while also leading The Valley in scoring (77.3) and turnovers per game (10.6), which ranked 38th and 34th in the country, respectively.
  • Likewise, the 2021-22 Bears finished as runners-up in the Missouri Valley Conference, racking up a 23-11 overall record and 13-5 record in the league. The Bears' season win total was the program's most since 2011 and the 10th-best in team history. The squad advanced to the MVC Tournament semifinals for the third straight year and also represented The Valley in the NIT in Ford's first postseason tournament showing at MoState. The Bears also set team records for 3-point field goals (283) while boasting two first-team all-conference players in the school's all-time best scoring tandem – Gaige Prim and Isiaih Mosley -- while Donovan Clay earned MVC All-Defensive Team honors, and Isaac Haney landed on the MVC All-Freshman Team. Jaylen Minnett was also named to the MVC All-Bench squad.
  • For the third time in his head coaching career, Ford was a finalist for the Ben Jobe Award at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season.
  • 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, TSU doubled its home attendance average and twice earned votes in the AP Top 25 poll in 2016-17. 
  • Ford, 38, earned 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, 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 (Trail Blazers) and Fred Van Vleet (Raptors).
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.
  • Pledge to assist the Rebound Challenge today!  Pledge Link
  • This year's Rebound Foundation game is vs. Murray State on Feb. 21.
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