Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Pittsburgh
Racers Fall At No. 18 Pittsburgh
12/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers dropped their first game of the season falling tonight to No. 18 Pittsburgh 70-49 in front of 9,112 fans at the Pittsburgh Holiday Hoops Classic at the Petersen Events Center.
MSU moves to 8-1 on the season under first-year head coach Mick Cronin, while Pittsburgh, the reigning Big East Champion, improves to 10-0 and extends the nation's third-longest home winning streak to 30 games with the victory. The Panthers are now a perfect 24-0 in the newly opened Peterson Events Center.
Senior forward Antione Whelchel led the way with eight points for Murray State, while senior forward Cuthbert Victor, the nation's leading rebounder at 11.8 per outing entering the game, finished with a game-high 11 caroms to go with his seven points.
After a three-pointer by senior guard Rick Jones gave the Racers an early 14-13 lead, Pittsburgh countered with back-to-back three-pointers by Levon Kendall and Carl Krauser to spark a 10-0 run, giving the Panthers a 23-14 lead with 7:59 left in the half. Kendall made a layup four seconds before halftime to make it 36-23 heading into the locker room.
MSU junior forward Kelvin Brown cut the deficit to nine when his jumper made it 55-46 with 6:18 remaining. A Mark McCarroll jump shot was followed by a Chris Taft dunk just 10 seconds later to get the Panthers' lead back to 59-46.
Pittsburgh put the game away with a 15-3 run over the final 5:44 after MSU had pulled to within nine with just over six minutes left in the game.
The Racers were held to their worst offensive output of the season by the stingy Panthers' defense as MSU was just 18-of-62 from the field for 29-percent, while Pittsburgh was 26-of-50 for 52-percent.
MSU was outrebounded by Pittsburgh 39-34, and the Racers were just 4-of-24 from beyond the three-point line on the night.
Up next, MSU closes out the Pittsburgh Holiday Classic against NAIA powerhouse Georgetown College on Monday at 3 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.
POST-GAME COMMENTS
MSU head coach Mick Cronin:
"When a team is as big and physical as Pittsburgh is, you've got to make shots to win. We didn't do that today."
"I'm proud of the way the kids battled all to the way end. We could've called off our press and made the score a little more respectable, but I wanted our guys to keep attacking them and play our game."
"Obviously, we knew we weren't going to go undefeated this season. We're more interested in the long run and playing well in March than what happens in one game in December. This game should prepare us for later in the season and where we want to go."
"I've got to give Pittsburgh a lot of credit. There's a reason they've won two-straight Big East titles. They're a strong basketball team and we just didn't have the answers for them today."
