Murray State
Jacksonville State
Witherspoon works double-double, Pearson works outside in 77-61 win
1/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Shawn Witherspoon put in a double-double for the Murray State Racers and Trey Pearson got his outside game going to bolster MSU to a 77-61 win at Jacksonville State tonight in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Witherspoon scored 14 points and had a game-high 10 rebounds to go with three steals. Witherspoon was 6-for-9 from the field.
Pearson -- unable to get his inside game going (3-for-9) -- was 5-for-7 from behind the arc, putting in a game-high 22 points to go with a team-high five assists and a game-high four steals.
Murray State (8-6, 3-1 OVC) scored the first seven points of the game, but Jacksonville State (4-12, 0-4 OVC) was able to work its way back to a 12-9 lead.
The Racers used a 13-4 run to take a 22-16 lead when Justin Orr hit two free throws with 10:11 left in the first half. The Gamecocks were able to get within a point, 26-25, when Walker Russell hit a free throw with 5:56 left in the period, but MSU scored the last 11 points of the half to take a 44-30 lead at intermission.
Jacksonville State was only able to get to within six points twice in the second half, shooting 9-for-24 (37.5 percent) in the latter period to Murray State's 52.2 percent (12-for-23).
Charles Johnson put in 13 points for the Racers on 5-for-5 shooting from the line, while Orr added 11 points off the bench. Pearson Griffith grabbed nine rebounds for MSU.
The Racers shot 48.3 percent (28-for-58) from the floor, 50 percent (7-for-14) from three-point range and 73.7 percent (14-for-19) from the line. JSU sank 37 percent (17-for-46) from the field, 55 percent (11-for-20) from three-point range and 69.6 percent (16-for-23) from the line. MSU out-rebounded JSU 38-25.
Jacksonville State was paced by Tim Lewis's 19 points off the bench on 6-for-7 shooting behind the arc. B.J. Spencer added 13 points for the Gamecocks. Carlos Lumpkin grabbed six rebounds, while Russell had nine assists for JSU.
Murray State concludes its three-game road swing with a Tuesday game at Tennessee-Martin at 7:30 p.m.
