Murray State
Morehead State
Racers Advance To OVC Title Game After 94-72 Win Over Morehead State
3/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Senior forward Cuthbert Victor was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and was one of five Murray State players scoring in double-figures as the No. 2 seeded Racers used a 16-2 run to open the game to roll to a 94-72 win over No. 3 seeded Morehead State tonight in semifinal action of the 2004 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.
The Racers (27-5) will play No. 1 seeded Austin Peay (21-8) on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the OVC Championship game in front a live television audience on ESPN2. The Governors earned a 62-57 win over No. 4 seeded Eastern Kentucky in the first of the two semifinal games.
Victor, named the 2004 OVC Men's Basketball Player of the Year on Thursday night, poured in 14 points to go with a game-high nine rebounds, six assists, two blocked shots and one steal in 29 minutes.
Senior guard Chris Shumate, a Second-Team All-OVC selection, led the Racers with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-7 on three-pointers. The Louisville, Ky., native also had four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
Senior forward Antione Whelchel added 14 points and six rebounds, while junior forward Kelvin Brown chipped in with 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Freshman forward Shawn Witherspoon continued his strong play of late going a perfect 6-of-6 from the field for 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds in just 15 minutes.
Murray scored the first three points of the game on a Whelchel three-pointer :34 seconds into the game and the Racers never trailed after rolling out to a 16-2 advantage capped by a Victor layup with 14:59 left in the first half. The Eagles (16-13) answered the Murray run and cut the deficit down to four at 26-22 after a three-point play by Ricky Minard, who led way for Morehead with a game-high 24 points.
The Racers bounced back to push the margin back out to 11 in the first half and held a 43-32 lead at the halftime break.
The second half featured several mini-runs by both squads before the Racers took command for good with 12-1 run late in the second half. The decisive run started with a Shumate three-pointer with 6:51 to go to make it 74-62 and was capped by a Brown jumper with 3:55 left to make it 83-63. Murray pushed its lead out to 25 over the final three minutes before settling for the 22-point final margin.
The Racers were a blistering 56.5 percent from the field on 35-of-62 shooting while holding the Eagles to just 40 percent on 24-of-60 shooting. Murray also controlled the lane by outrebounding Morehead 37-28 and by outscoring them 52-38 in the paint and 16-8 on second chance points. Another key for the Racers was their 38-15 advantage in bench points led by Brown's 13 and Witherspoon's 12.
Junior guard Adam Chiles, playing in his second game since returning from a dislocated shoulder suffered on Feb. 14, dished out a game-high eight assists in 18 minutes of action.
NOTES:
-- The Racers will be playing in their 14th OVC Tournament championship game in the last 17 years...MSU has won nine of the last 16 tournament titles and 11 overall.
-- MSU improves to 24-0 this season when scoring more than 70 points and moves to 23-0 when outrebounding its opponent.
-- After tonight's 94-72 win, the Racers increased their lead in the all-time series with Morehead to 97-50, including all three meetings this season.
-- With two more blocked shots tonight, Victor now has 159 blocked shots in his career, No. 1 all-time at MSU.
-- With their 94-point effort tonight, the Racers are now 159-8 since 1994 when scoring 80 points or more in a game.
-- MSU lost their only meeting with the Govs this season, a 63-56 decision on Feb. 14 in Clarksville, while that was also the game in which Chiles' suffered his shoulder injury after diving on the floor for a loose ball.
