Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Missouri State

Benson-q3qwer

Men's Hoops Wraps Road Slate Wednesday at Illinois State

February 26, 2024

By: MSU Athletics Communications
Game 30 - Missouri State Bears (15-14, 7-11 MVC) at Illinois State Redbirds (14-15 , 8-10 MVC)
Date and Time Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024 | 7:00 p.m. (Central)
Location CEFCU Arena (10,200) | Normal, Illinois
Tickets Tickets | (309) 438-8000
Radio KWTO (FM 93.3 / AM 560) (Tom Ladd, Mike Keltner) | MSU Radio Network | Listen Live |
The Varsity Network App
Television ESPN+ (Max Thomas, Kelly Burke) | Watch
Series Illinois State leads, 47-35 | Last Meeting:  ILST 69, MSU 60 (1/20/24) | Box Score
Live Stats Live Stats
Game Notes Missouri State | Illinois 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 Sunday, March 3 vs. UIC | 1 p.m. (ESPN+) | Senior Day & Fan Appreciation Day | Tickets

The Ten Count
  • Missouri State will take to the road for the final time in 2023-24 when the Bears travel to Illinois State on Wednesday (7 p.m./ESPN+) to take on the Redbirds. The Bears are seeking their 4th Valley road win of the campaign.
  • Missouri State's seed range for Arch Madness is 7-10. Illinois State's current seed range is 4-10. The Bears start the week at No. 153 in the NCAA's NET rankings, while ISU is No. 170.
  • Bears head coach Dana Ford is a 2006 graduate of Illinois State where he played for coaches Tom Richardson and Porter Moser from 2002-06. He was a regular starter for ISU, leading the Redbirds in steals his senior year. Ford is 6-4 in his career against Illinois State, including a 6-3 ledger as Missouri State's head coach (3-0 at Great Southern Bank Arena).
  • Since 2020-21, the Bears are 21-16 in Valley road games. Likewise, during Dana Ford's six seasons as head coach at Missouri State, the Bears have won 29 MVC road games, just behind Drake (31) for the league's most in that span. 
  • Donovan Clay (Sr., Alton, Ill.) is coming off his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds at Belmont, while he also eclipsed 1,000 points at Missouri State (93 games) in the same contest. He is the 32nd Bear to reach that milestone and the 24th-fastest Bear to reach 1,000. Among all active DI players, Clay ranks 12th in games played (156), 35th in rebounds (859), 35th in blocks (160) and 85th in scoring (1,621). 
  • Matthew Lee (Sr., San Juan, PR) is 9 points from 800 for his collegiate career (109g). Over the last 6 ball games, Lee is averaging 15.3 points and 4.2 assists while converting 82.4 percent (28-of-34) at the FT line. He has started the last 4 contests and eclipsed his career season scoring high with 226 points this year.  
  • Alston Mason (Jr., Phoenix, Ariz.) has scored in double figures 23 times in 26 appearances this season, including 19 games with 15 or more points, and 9 games with 20 or more. He ranks 3rd in the MVC and 78th nationally in scoring (18.0 ppg). Mason has also knocked down multiple threes 20 times this season. He is 23 points from 800 at MSU (57g).
  • The Bears rank 11th nationally in defensive rebounds per game (28.90), 47th in total rebounds (38.79) and 60th in rebound margin (+4.2), all of which lead the MVC. Likewise, N.J. Benson leads the MVC in offensive rebounding (2.93).
  • MSU has eclipsed 200 threes (204) as a team for the 3rd straight season and the 7th time in the last 8 years.
  • Chance Moore (Jr., Brookhaven, Ga.) has been remarkable the last 2 weeks for the Bears, averaging 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in than span -- both 2nd on the team -- while shooting 50 percent from the field.
  • The Bears have 2 players closing in on 100 assists for the season with Matthew Lee (99) and Alston Mason (93) approaching the century mark. Mason has led the Bears in assists 15 times this year compared to 14 for Lee. The last time the Bears had two players with 100+ assists was 2010-11 with Nafis Ricks (138) and Jermaine Mallett (102). 
  • MoState has recorded a double-double in 3 straight games with N.J. Benson (So., Mt. Vernon, Ill.) posting back-to-back double-doubles in recent games against Valparaiso and Bradley before Donovan Clay (Sr., Alton, Ill.) secured his first double-double of the season at Belmont on Saturday. Benson ranks 2nd in the MVC with 7 double-figure scoring/rebounding games this season.
  • Dawson Carper's (Sr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) next appearance will be his 50th as a Bear. The Hawaii transfer has collected 90 points and 71 rebounds in his 4 seasons at Missouri State.

The Series
  • The series between the Bears and Redbirds dates back to the 1967 NCAA Division II national semifinals - a 93-76 win by the Bears en route to their national runner-up showing. Illinois State leads the all-time series, 47-35. Against the Redbirds, MSU is 23-14 in Springfield (8-6 at Great Southern Bank Arena), 9-29 in Normal, and 3-4 at neutral sites.
  • The squads played just once last season (1/11/23) with ISU prevailing in overtime in Normal, 76-66. The Redbirds made all 10 of their free throws in the OT and 29-of-32 (.906) for the game. With the score tied at the end of regulation, the Bears missed a pair of close-range shots just before the final buzzer, but then jumped out to a 64-61 lead early in the extra period thanks to three free throws from Donovan Clay. But the rest of the OT period belonged to the Redbirds who pulled ahead on a pair of foul shots from Kendall Lewis with 2:16 to go. When the smoke cleared, a 13-0 ISU run put the game away. Seneca Knight's 22 points led five Redbirds in double-figures, while Chance Moore led MoState with 17 points and Clay added a dozen points for the visitors. 
  • Earlier this season in Springfield (1/20/24), there were 16 lead changes and 9 ties, before Illinois State took control over the last six minutes to top MSU, 69-60. After Alston Mason's 3-pointer gave Missouri State a 59-57 lead with 6:16 to go, the Bears missed their last 10 field goal attempts of the game and managed just one more point the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Redbirds ended the game on a 12-1 run to capture the victory. Darius Burford led three Illinois State scorers in double figures with 22 points. Clay scored 19 points, and Mason finished with 18. | Box Score
  • See page 8 of game notes for complete series history.

Coach Dana Ford
  • Dana Ford (Illinois State, 2006) is 104-80 (.565) in his sixth season as Missouri State head coach, including a 61-25 (.709) ledger at Great Southern Bank Arena, 32-43 record in away games, and 11-12 mark at neutral sites. He is now 161-145 (.526) in his tenth season as a head coach, including four seasons at Tennessee State. Ford is also 63-47 (.573) in the MVC (34-21 at home, 29-26 away). Ford's 63 wins in Valley play are third to Drake (77) and Bradley (65) over his six seasons with the Bears.
  • Coach Ford is 6-5 vs. Illinois State overall, including a 6-4 record as head coach at MSU (3-3 at Redbird Arena).
  • He picked up his 150th career win on Nov. 20, 2023 with the Bears' 87-69 win over Abilene Christian in the Virgin Islands and his 100th career victory on Feb. 7, 2021 with a Bears' win at Illinois State (72-62). He coached his 100th game at Missouri State on Dec. 15, 2021 vs. South Dakota State. His win over Oakland on Nov. 27, 2022 in The Bahamas was his 75th victory at MSU, while his OT victory at Drake on Jan. 18, 2023 was his 50th MVC win.
  • In 2022-23, the new-look Bears featured 14 new faces and ultimately turned the squad into Valley contenders. The Bears landed an All-MVC selection in second-teamer Donovan Clay and All-Bench Team honoree Chance Moore. Clay, who was also on the MVC All-Defensive Team, led the Bears in scoring (11.9 ppg) and assists (108) while becoming the first Bear since 2018-19 to reach the century mark in assists. Moore averaged 10.6 points per game and racked up 17 double-figure scoring games.
  • Ford's fifth season in Springfield concluded with a 12-8 conference record, making him the first sideline boss in program history to collect a dozen or more conference wins in three straight seasons. The Bears allowed just 63.2 points per game on the year, which ranked 24th nationally and was the club's best scoring defense in more than a decade. MSU also eclipsed its season record for blocked shots (140) -- a mark that had held for nearly a quarter century -- and ranked second in The Valley in rejections.
  • 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, 39, earned the Ben Jobe Award in 2016 as the nation's top Division I minority coach, a distinction he has been nominated for three times. 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 (Clippers) and Fred Van Vleet (Rockets).
  • Ford was recognized by 417 Magazine as one of its top 100 most-influential professionals in 2022 and 2023. He also serves on the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee. 
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
Print Friendly Version

Sponsors