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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 3, 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Missouri State - 70

Northern Iowa - 64

THE MODERATOR: The victorious Bears are with us. They have a date tomorrow afternoon with Wichita State in the second semifinal round game. Alize Johnson and Dequon Miller represent the student body of Missouri state. Paul Lusk is the coach.

PAUL LUSK: We're excited to get the win. As I just told our guys, Northern Iowa is a terrific, terrific program, not just within this league, but they've been a national program and have a great deal of respect for their players and their staff and Jake. For us to get the win, it's a good evening. We're ready to get back to the hotel and get started for tomorrow.

Q. For both of you guys, just how good does it feel to get another chance at Wichita State?
THE MODERATOR: Alize, first you and then Dequon.

ALIZE JOHNSON: It's going to be a really good challenge. Northern Iowa is a great team. Just to get a chance at Wichita after being so close at home, it's a good feeling. We're going to try our hardest to play hard.

DEQUON MILLER: I mean, it's always going to feel good to get a crack at a top 25 team. We're just going to battle tomorrow and try to take care of business the right way.

Q. Just for Alize, the last time you played these guys, they held you to, I think it was, four points on 1 of 7 shooting. What was the biggest difference why you were able to dominate the way you did tonight?
ALIZE JOHNSON: When we played them back at home, that's when I was in my struggling slump. My coaches just keep pushing me to be a good player, and I just try to do what they ask me to do, and it went my way today.

Q. Dequon, can you just talk about how important it was to shut down the way you played defense on Jeremy Morgan in the second half?
DEQUON MILLER: I think it was very important because he's a rock and so is the team. Really, if you take him out of it, they're going to really struggle to bring the ball up the court and stuff. So I was just trying to keep him out of it and stop him from posting and stuff.

But they got two really good post players too, but like I said, Jeremy Morgan, he's the rock of the team. So you take him out of it, you'll have a pretty good chance at beating them.

PAUL LUSK: Dequon, 2 for 10, you don't win the game without him. He was an absolute warrior out there. Guarded Jeremy Morgan and really made him work. Took some really good shots. He had that one in the corner that went in and out. I just thought his game was terrific.

That's growth on his part. I've seen Jeremy Morgan struggle before, and I mentioned it before the game. It doesn't matter. He still impacts winning. That's what good players do. Jeremy Morgan, we have a ton of respect for him. But to see DeDe not shoot it and stay locked in, that was a great senior moment for our program and for him.

Q. Alize, could you talk a little bit about the success from the free-throw line, yourself and also Dixon coming in at the end there. And Kendrix, just the free-throw shooting for the Bears.
ALIZE JOHNSON: It's funny because these two right here have been practicing with me on our free throws. Coach, just keeping it here in the middle, and DeDe, just bending my knees. I've been hitting them down the stretch.

J.D., he's a big-time player. He's still learning just like us. For him to come in and hit the free throws with the experience last year was big time.

PAUL LUSK: That was J.D.'s first Valley experience too. I thought J.D. really struggled the first half, but then came in the second half and showed great composure and really helped us.

We're going to get these guys back to the room. It's late. Anything else? Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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