Murray State
Missouri
Racers battle to the wire in 59-55 loss at Missouri
11/28/2004 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
"We were nervous in the beginning," head coach Mick Cronin said. "Once we forgot who we were playing and where we were playing, we settled in."
The Racers started very sluggish, falling behind 20-5 with 10:42 left in the first half. They pulled themselves back into the game with tenacious defense.
Starting with a put-back from Issian Redding, the Racers engineered a 20-6 run to take their first lead with 25 seconds left in the half.
Missouri forward Linas Kleiza scored with one second left to give the Tigers a 27-26 lead. Racer junior Trey Pearson took the inbounds pass and heaved the ball from the baseline, making an incredible 94-foot shot.
Upon review, the officials determined that Pearson's amazing shot was after the buzzer.
In the second half, the Racers fell behind 37-34 with 14:53 remaining in the game. However, from that point, the Racers commanded their biggest lead of the game on a fast-break hoop by Redding. After a Missouri miss, Shawn Witherspoon scored to put the Racers up 46-39 with 8:00 left in the game.
Commenting on the final minutes of the game, Cronin said, "It seemed we played defense an awful lot in the last three or four minutes."
Missouri scored on a three-point play by Jason Conley to give the Tigers a 48-47 lead with 5:50 left. Then Jimmy McKinney hit a three for a 50-48 Missouri lead. The Racers never had the lead again. Missouri (3-3) held the Racers (2-1) the rest of the way and won the game 59-55.
Pearson led the Racers with 16 points. He also added four assists and six steals. Redding enjoyed his best game so far as a Racer, scoring 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
Battling foul trouble from the start, Keith Jenifer was held scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting.
The Racers' 16 offensive rebounds was one reason why they were in position to win.
Cronin remains confident that the young Racers are headed in the right direction.
"We made great strides today," he said. "If we can continue to have the right attitude, we'll be fine.
"We're going to hang our hat on our defense and rebounding. We've got to get baskets off of our defense until our offense comes around."
The Racers play at home twice this week. MSU hosts Texas-San Antonio Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. at the Regional Special Events Center. On Saturday, the Racers host rival Western Kentucky, also at 7:15.
