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Basketball Bears Conclude Regular Season at Indiana State

February 23, 2023

By: MSU Athletics Communications
Game 30 - Missouri State Bears (15-14, 11-8 MVC) at  Indiana State (20-10, 13-6 MVC)
Date and Time Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 | 1:02 p.m. (Central)
Location Hulman Center (9,000) | Terre Haute, Indiana
Tickets TicketMaster.com | (877) ISU-TIXS
Radio KWTO (FM 93.3 / AM 560) (Don West, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live | Varsity Network
Television ESPN+ (Luke Martin, Matt Wren) | Watch
Series Missouri State leads 53-27 | Last Meeting: MSU 64, INST 62 (1/15/23) | Box Score
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Indiana State | MVC Weekly Release | MSU Media Guide
Follow Facebook | Athletics Twitter | Basketball Twitter | Instagram | #MSUBears | #BearsUnite
Bears Mobile App App Store (Apple Devices) | Google Play Store (Android Devices)
Up Next MSU heads to the 2023 State Farm MVC Men's Basketball Championship in St. Louis |
March 2-5 at Enterprise Center | Tournament Central

The Ten Count
  • BRACKET IMPLICATIONS: With a Bears win; a Murray State loss to Valpo; OR a Drake win over Bradley on Sunday, Missouri State will be the No. 6 seed for Arch Madness ... If Indiana State beats the Bears; Murray State wins over Valpo; AND Bradley defeats Drake, Missouri State will be the No. 7 seed for Arch Madness 
  • Missouri State concludes the 2022-23 regular season Sunday when the Bears travel to Terre Haute, Ind., to take on Indiana State (1 p.m./ESPN+). The Bears have won 13 of the last 15 meetings between the clubs, dating back to 2016, including four of the last five meetings at Hulman Center.
  • The Bears are coming off a 51.6-percent shooting effort vs. Murray State on Tuesday, the club's first 50-percent game since Dec. 28 at UNI. Missouri State is 5-1 this season (and 42-5 under Dana Ford) when shooting 50 percent or better.
  • During coach Dana Ford's five seasons at Missouri State, he is 25-20 (.556) in Valley road games, including a 2-1 ledger in Terre Haute. Only Drake (27) has won more conference road games in that span.
  • Since the start of 2023, Donovan Clay (Sr., Alton, Ill.) has scored in double figures 13 times in 14 games (9 points vs. SIU on Jan. 21), while averaging 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.4 blocks per game.  
  • Kendle Moore (Sr., Danville, Ill.) has 212 career 3-pointers which ranks 113th among all active DI players. The transfer from Colorado State has played 147 career games and racked up 1,227 points in his career.
  • Missouri State has recorded three straight 10-win seasons in MVC play under coach Dana Ford -- the program's first such run since 2005-07. With a win over Indiana State on Sunday, Ford would become the first coach in the 110-year history of the Bears program to win 12 or more conference games in three straight seasons. 
  • The Bears have used 14 different starting lineups this season, the program's most since the 2012-13 season (14). Only four teams nationally have used more: Coppin State (21), Austin Peay (15), Eastern Michigan (15) and TCU (15). 
  • Donovan Clay is 11 points from cracking MSU's top 100 career scorers. Clay has 604 points in 61 games as a Bear (9.9 ppg). He is also 3 assists from 100 on the season, a milestone no Bear has reached since 2018-19 (Josh Webster).
  • The Bears have eclipsed 200 3-pointers for the sixth time in seven years. The team's 234 triples this winter ranks 6th in program history, while its 8.07 threes per game is 2nd. Missouri State is coming off a season-high 13 threes in its win over Murray State on Tuesday, pushing it to 7-1 this season when it tallies 10 or more threes. 
  • MSU ranks 30th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 63.7 points per game this season. In Valley games, the Bears have allowed just 64.0 points per game, with an adjusted scoring defense of 62.8 in regulation of MVC contests.
  • Missouri State has out-rebounded its last 5 opponents (+7.0 margin) and matched or out-rebounded 19-of-29 opponents this season. The Bears have also collected 10 or more offensive caroms in 9 of the last 10 games (12.1 per game), ranking 1st in the MVC -- and 83rd nationally -- in offensive rebounds per game (11.24).
  • The Bears rank 53rd nationally and 2nd in the MVC in blocks per game (4.28). MSU has 4 or more blocks in 8 of its last 9 games. MoState is just 15 blocks shy of the single-season program record of 139 set in 1998-99.
  • Should Donovan Clay hit 3 more three-pointers this season, it would give Missouri State 7 different players with 20 or more triples on the campaign -- something done just once previously (2013-14) in program history.
  • Jonathan Mogbo (Jr., W. Palm Beach, Fla.) ranks 3rd in the MVC in rebounding (7.19), 4th in blocks (1.15) and 10th in steals (1.37).
The Series
  • The Bears lead the all-time series against Indiana State, 53-27, in a rivalry that dates back to 1951-52. Missouri State is 33-6 in Springfield (13-3 at Great Southern Bank Arena), 16-20 in Terre Haute, and 4-1 at neutral sites. 
  • The Bears have won 13 of the last 15 meetings, dating back to 2016, including a two-game sweep in 2020-21.
  • Earlier this season in Springfield (1/15/23), the Bears were led by 21 points from Donovan Clay and 20 from Bryan Trimble to turn back Indiana State, 64-62. On the inside, Clay and Dalen Ridgnal showed up strong, with Clay coming up one point shy of a career high and finishing 7-of-15 from the field with a pair of threes. Ridgnal narrowly missed a double-double with 9 points and 10 rebounds.
      After leading by four at the midway point, the Bears came out strong in the second half, getting back-to-back buckets from Kendle Moore ahead of a triple from Trimble, and a traditional 3-point play from Clay. Before the under-12 timeout, the Bears had extended their lead to 47-37. Clay's two free throws at the 10:26 mark gave MoState its largest lead of the game at 52-39. But the experienced Sycamores responded with a 13-4 run over the next seven minutes and turned to Cameron Henry and Courvoisier McCauley to make it a 56-52 game with 3:23 remaining. Coming out of the final media timeout, Jonathan Mogbo's putback off a Ridgnal miss and Clay's layup a minute later gave MSU an eight-point cushion with a minute-and-a-half to play. MSU shot a season-best 94.1 percent from the foul line, making 16-of-17, to go with 24 bench points. | Box Score
Coach Dana Ford
  • Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 87-65 (.572) in his fifth season as Missouri State head coach, including a 53-20 (.726) ledger at Great Southern Bank Arena, 27-34 record in away games, and 7-11 mark at neutral sites. He is now 144-130 (.526) in his ninth season as a head coach, including four seasons at Tennessee State. Ford is also 55-36 (.604) in Valley games (30-16 at home, 25-20 away). 
  • Coach Ford is 8-2 vs. Indiana State overall, including a 7-2 ledger as head coach at MSU, a 4-1 record at Great Southern Bank Arena and 2-1 record in Terre Haute.
  • 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.
  • 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
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