GAME NOTES: The Missouri State Bears hit the road for the first time this season, as they challenge the Texas Tech Red Raiders at United Supermarkets Arena on Saturday night.

Missouri State is perfect through the first week of action, having disposed of Eastern Illinois (64-53) and Avila University (87-39), both at home. Following this clash, the Bears will head north to take part in the Great Alaska Shootout next week. They will kick off Missouri Valley Conference play at Southern Illinois on New Year's Eve.

Texas Tech comes into this contest having split its first two games, as Tubby Smith's club got past visiting Loyola-Maryland in the season opener (71-59), but then fell at LSU in overtime four days later (69-64). Tonight's game starts a stretch of eight straight the Red Raiders will play in Lubbock, with their next road trek taking place on Dec. 22 when they face Loyola-Chicago in Las Vegas. The team's Big 12 Conference slate gets underway at home versus Texas on Jan. 3, 2015.

Texas Tech leads the all-time series with Missouri State, 3-0, and this is the first meeting since December of 1997.

Missouri State saw six players score in double figures, as the Bears had very little trouble handling NAIA foe Avila University on Wednesday night. Balance was the key for the hosts, as Marcus Marshall led the way with 13 points, Austin Ruder had 12, two others had 11 and still two more tallied 10 apiece. As a team, Missouri State connected on 48.4 percent of its field goal attempts, while holding its overmatched opponent to just 31.1 percent. Avila missed 12 of its 14 3-point attempts, committed 19 turnovers and was badly beaten on the boards, 51-19.

While it was solid, it wasn't quite the same effort Marshall put forth in the team's season opener against Eastern Illinois when he scored a career-high 38 points. It was actually the highest single-game total for a Missouri State player since 1979.

Despite 13 points each from Zach Smith and Norense Odiase, the Red Raiders dropped a heartbreaker at LSU the last time out. Texas Tech had started the game off like gangbusters, opening up a 36-24 halftime lead. But from there, the team went cold as it hit only 24 percent of its shots in the second stanza, and went only 1-of-5 from the floor in the overtime period. A total of 17 turnovers proved costly as well. Neither team could find its stroke from distance, combining to go just 5-of-31 from 3-point range.

The Red Raiders didn't shoot the ball particularly well in the opener against Loyola (.397), although it did manage to hit seven treys while committing more than half the number of turnovers the Greyhounds had (7-15). Odiase was high man for Tech in that bout in both scoring and on the glass, logging a double- double consisting of 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Bears are off to a nice start, but they haven't faced a team of Texas Tech's caliber yet. That's not to say the Red Raiders are world beaters, but they are certainly better than a squad like Avila. Add the fact that this is Missouri State's first road test, and it appears that the visitors may be in for a letdown.