Murray State
Morehead State
Pearson's 28, Racers' 21-1 run cage Morehead State's Eagles 83-64
1/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Trey Pearson's game-high 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting and a late 21-1 run by the Murray State Racers helped them contain the homestanding Morehead State Eagles 83-64 in Ohio Valley Conference action tonight.
Pearson scored 20 of his points in the second half, going 7-for-10 from the field, 4-for-6 from three-point range and 2-for-2 from the line in the latter period.
The game was a seesaw battle early on, as Morehead State (9-10, 3-5 OVC) got out to as much as a 10-6 lead, but Murray State (11-7, 6-2 OVC) hung in there. With the game tied at 22-22 with 7:47 left in the first half, the Racers scored the next seven points and went into the locker room at halftime with a 36-28 lead.
The Eagles opened the second half scoring the first nine points of the period to gain a 39-38 lead, and would take as much as a 46-41 lead when Chad McKnight scored a three-point play with 13:28 left in regulation.
Murray State chisled away at that lead, and had a 59-58 lead with 7:12 left in the game when it began a huge drive, scoring the next 12 points and 21 of the next 22 to power out to an 80-59 lead six minutes later.
The drive began when Darnell Hopkins made the second of two free-throw attempts. Pearson popped in a trey and Hopkins made two more free throws. A three-pointer by Issian Redding and a three-point play by Redding capped a 12-0 run that pushed the Racers out to a 71-58 lead.
Morehead State's Quinton Smith made one of two free-throw attempts to break up the Racer run, but Murray State picked up where it left off, on lay-ups by Pearson and Redding, a free throw by Pearson Griffith, a lay-in by Pearson and two free throws by Pearson had Murray State at 80-59 with 1:17 left in the game.
Pearson had 28 points to go with six rebounds and four assists. Keith Jenifer added 12 points and had a team-high five assists, while Redding had 10 points off the bench and a co-game-high seven rebounds.
Griffith also had seven rebounds, while Justin Orr had a co-game-high three steals. Shawn Witherspoon had six rebounds to go with eight points.
Morehead State was paced by Smith's 16 points, six assists and three steals. McKnight added 13 points and five rebounds, while Cory Burns had 11 points and five rebounds and Josh Reed put in 11 points.
Murray State now opens a five-game homestand on Thursday against Eastern Illinois in the teams' first meeting of the season. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. in the Regional Special Events Center.
