Murray State
Southern Illinois
Racers mount second-half comeback, but host Salukis prevail 80-71
12/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers trailed 55-41 with just over 11 minutes left in regulation, but mounted a tremendous comeback, using a 25-13 run to pull to within 68-66 with 3:16 left. Host Southern Illinoiis scored the next nine points and came away with the 80-71 win this afternoon.
The Racers (3-3) were able to chip away at the 14-point deficit, SIU's largest lead of the game, opening the run with back-to-back threes from Trey Pearson and Shane Dansby. Issian Redding's free throws with 3:15 left in the game pulled Murray State to within 68-66 , the closest it had been in the second half.
Saluki Stetson Hairston then took charge, hitting one of two free-throw attempts, then popping a three-point basket and hitting two free throws to personally get Southern Illinois (5-2) out to a 74-66 lead. A trey from SIU's Tony Young completed the nine-point run and put the Salukis back out to a double-digit lead with 55 seconds remaining.
Murray State took its only lead of the game early in the first half. A jumpshot by Trey Pearson gave the Racers their only lead at 10-9 with 14:24 left in the half, and a jumper by Charles Johnson extended that lead to 12-9 with 13:42 left in the period. A 5-0 Saluki run at that point wrested the lead from MSU for the remainder of the game.
Murray State was led by Darnell Hopkins, who got his first start as a Racer. Hopkins scored 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field to go with a team-high five rebounds. Pearson added 17 points, also shooting 7-for-14 from the floor, and handed out a team-high four assists. Keith Jenifer put in eight points and also had a team-high five rebounds to go with three assists and two steals. Redding had eight points and five rebounds, while Shawn Witherspoon also grabbed five rebounds.
Southern Illinois was paced by Darren Brooks' 27 points and 10 rebounds. Hairston added 18 points and had a game-high six assists, while Young had 10 points and a game-high six steals.
The Racers opened the game shooting 37.5 percent from the field (9-for-24) in the first half, but made adjustments and shot 57.1 percent (16-for-28) in the second half to finish at 48.1 percent. Southern Illinois led 33-28 at the half.
The Salukis shot 44.8 percent (13-for-29) in the first half, but also improved in the second half, hitting 68.8 percent (11-for-16) of its shots in the latter frame.
The scoring difference came from the free-throw line, where SIU hit 27 of its 35 attempts, while MSU was 15-for-21 from the line. Southern Illinois had 20 free throws in the second half to MSU's seven. Murray State had 23 fouls in the game to SIU's 21.
Despite the loss, MSU head coach Mich Cronin was pleased with the improved play of his team.
"We looked much better than we did last Saturday (against Western Kentucky)," he said. "There are a lot of little things that we are slowly eliminating. Playing this close a game at SIU and the opponents we have coming up with make us better by the time the conference season comes.
"We had 12 deflections over the last 10 minutes, but we had dug too deep a hole. I thought Shane Dansby gave us a tremendous lift on the defensive end. We took a lot of charges and got it down to two (68-66), but we were just unable to get a stop."
Murray State will take Finals Week off and return to the hardcourt on Dec. 22, when the Racers host Delaware State at the Regional Special Events Center at 7:15 p.m. That game can be heard locally on WFGE (103.7 FM, Murray) or through the Teamline link at www.GoRacers.com.
