Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Shumate's 16 Points Not Enough As MSU Falls At Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
1/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Senior guard Chris Shumate led the way with 16 points, but it was not enough as the Murray State Racers struggled to find their stride in a tough 80-68 non-conference road loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tonight.
Shumate was 6-of-13 from the field, including 3-of-6 from behind the three-point line and pulled down four rebounds in 32 minutes of action. Senior forward Antione Whelchel was the other Racer scoring in double-figures with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field to go with a team-high eight rebounds. Junior guard Adam Chiles also had a solid night with nine points and seven assists.
MSU (15-4) jumped out to a 7-0 lead to open the game and held a 14-9 advantage after a Kevin Paschel three-pointer with 12:32 left in the first half. The Islanders (10-8) bounced back with a 6-0 run to gain their first lead of the night at 15-14 with 10:40 to go.
The two teams exchanged the lead four times over the next five minutes with the Racers holding their final advantage of the night at 26-25 on a Shumate three-pointer with 6:57 left in the first. TAMUCC came back to regain the lead for good at 28-26 with 5:44 to go after a Derrick Murphy basket.
The Islanders pushed the margin out to as much as 10 at 36-26 in the first half before a Chiles jumper cut to 36-28 at halftime.
After TAMUCC opened the second half by scoring the first four points for a 40-28 lead, MSU was able to cut the deficit down to eight again at 40-32 on another Shumate three-pointer with 17:42 to go only to see the Islanders eventually push the margin back out to double-digits for the rest of the night.
Overall, the Racers were 23-of-57 from the field for 40.4 percent, while the Islanders were a strong 25-of-44 for 56.8 percent. TAMUCC was 26-of-33 from the free throw line, while MSU was just 12-of-20. The Racers were also outrebounded 39-22.
Up next, MSU returns home to host Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky.
POST-GAME COMMENTS
MSU head coach Mick Cronin:
"We got outcoached, outprepared, outhustled and outplayed tonight. Corpus Christi really brought the fight to us, and I'm really disappointed that we didn't fight back. They're a good team. They're strong inside and strong outside, and they played great. They hit big shot after big shot. We didn't do nearly enough to defend ourselves and that's disappointing."
"I'm out of speeches and out of tirades. We're at the point now where there's going to have to be a lot of soul searching for this team. We've certainly lost the focus and effort that pushed us to our wins early in the season, and we're not the same team we were."
"We've got two big games coming this week, and I'm sure we're going to have a new starting lineup. I'm not worried about strategy. I'm more worried about finding guys that will go out there and fight for this team. That's what we're lacking, and I want some players that will step up and show that every game matters."
