Murray State
Morehead State
Another Victor Double-Double Leads Racers Past Morehead State 90-76
1/31/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State senior forward Cuthbert Victor earned his 11th double-double of the season and the 27th of his career with a 26-point, 17-rebound performance to lead the Racers to a 90-76 home win over Ohio Valley Conference rival Morehead State today in front of 5,498 fans at the Regional Special Events Center.
Victor, a 6-5 native of the Virgin Islands, was 9-of-14 from the field and blocked two shots while dominating the paint for Murray State (17-4, 7-1 OVC), which continues to sit alone in second place in the conference standings behind only Austin Peay.
Senior forward Antione Whelchel earned his second double-double of the season pouring in 18 points to go with 10 rebounds and four assists. Guards Adam Chiles and Chris Shumate added 13 points each as four Racers scored in double-figures on the day. Chiles also dished out a game-high six assists.
The game, which was televised regionally by Fox Sports Net South, featured nine lead changes and five ties during the first 15 minutes of action. Morehead State (9-10, 4-4 OVC) opened the game with a 4-0 run and led by as many as four on three occasions in the first half with the final coming at 10-6 with 16:16 left.
The Racers gained their first lead of the night at 11-10 on a Shumate three-pointer with 15:27 to go. The teams continued to exchange the lead over the next 10 minutes before Murray regained the lead for good at 38-37 on a Victor layup with 4:53 left. The Racers pushed their lead out to six on three occasions over the final 2:35 with the final coming at 49-43 at the halftime break.
Murray opened the second half with a 9-2 run to push its advantage out to 14 at 58-44 on a Whelchel jumper with 17:21 left in the game. After the Eagles pulled back to within six at 61-55 with 13:07 to play, the Racers responded by outscoring Morehead 21-10 over the next 9 minutes, 55 seconds of action for an 82-65 lead with 3:12 left to play.
A quick 9-0 Eagle run cut the deficit to eight at 82-74 with 1:27 left, but the Racers were a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line over the final 1:10 of the game to push the final margin back out to 14.
Overall, the Racers were 36-of-66 from the field for 54.5 percent, including 15-of-27 (55.6%) in the second half, while the Eagles were 27-of-58 for 46.6 percent overall and just 10-of-29 (34.5%) over the final 20 minutes.
Murray completely dominated the glass outrebounding Morehead 49-21, led by Victor and Whelchel who combined for 27 caroms between the two of the them. The Racers also dominated in the paint by outscoring the Eagles 56-28 in the lane and 24-6 on second chance points.
Up next, MSU returns to the road to take on Eastern Illinois in an OVC matchup on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7:35 p.m. in Charleston, Ill.
POST-GAME COMMENTS
MSU head coach Mick Cronin:
"I'm not real happy with 16 turnovers, and our deflections were a little bit low, but we were able to erase that with an unbelievable rebounding effort. To outrebound somebody by 28 is monumental, and our guys are starting to understand what it takes to win. Our rebounding today was directly related to our senior leadership. I couldn't be happier with our team's attitude right now, and I'm very pleased with our effort out there today."
"I told our team and I told Cuffy (Cuthbert Victor) that there's no disgrace and no shame in being who you are. All you can do is be the person you are and play the way you have to play to have success. Cuffy is a great athlete and when he plays with tremendous desire and explosion to the ball, he's as good as there is. He hit a little period (this season) where he was struggling and all guys go through that in a long season. He looks like he's gotten his second wind, and I think he's ready to make a big push to close out the season. He's been tremendous in these last two games at home."
"We weren't able to press much today because Morehead did such a good job of getting the ball out of the net and pushing it up the floor. We were more concerned with getting back and stopping the ball and their attack than finding a place to trap them. Our guys are starting to understand that you're not going to always be able to steal the ball and score. Some teams are going to take care of the ball and that's when we've got to find a way to win a game by playing strong half-court defense and rebounding the basketball."
"Teams win games, not individual players or coaches. The team is the key. Players work together to play great team defense, and it's all about the team. We've got enough talent to win a lot of games even when one or two guys are struggling or not playing. We won at TCU with several guys in severe foul trouble, and that's because our team pulled together to get it done."
"We felt like we could outrebound them because of our athleticism and strength. We didn't expect to outrebound them by the margin that we did, but that's a statement on how hard this team played and how dedicated they were to crashing the glass. This entire team is similar Cuffy (Victor). We're an effort team, and if we don't have the hustle and we don't attack the basketball, we're not going to win. You gain a lot of extra possessions by hustling and rebounding. To win, we've got to hang our hat on defense and rebounding, and we did that today."
MSU senior forward Antione Whelchel:
"We're determined to win. We understand that rebounding and controlling the glass is important to us winning, and that's what we did today. One player doesn't determine what this team is going to do. If it takes outrebounding a team by 28 for us to win, then that's what we've got to do. Whatever it takes to make this team better is what we're willing to do."
