Murray State
Morehead State
Witherspoon pours in career-high 33 as Racers win OVC opener 83-61
1/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sophomore Shawn Witherspoon, one of just two returning lettermen from last season's Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion team, took the Racers in the direction of another championship tonight. The forward from Oviedo, Fla., poured in a career-high 33 points to lead the Racers (6-5, 1-0 OVC) past the Morehead State Eagles in both teams' Ohio Valley Conference opener.
Witherspoon shot an astonishing 13-of-17 from the floor, and also had a co-game-high eight rebounds, just one shy of his career-high in that category as well. Witherspoon also chipped in three assists and three steals. Witherspoon's previous career-high in points came last year against Chicago State, when he had 15 points.
"We had to make a statement in this conference game," Witherspoon said. "As far as leadership goes, I feel I needed to do more. I needed to be more of an example instead of being vocal. I got into a flow and started making lay-ups. My offense comes when I work hard on defense."
Murray State charged out of the gates to take a 9-0 lead in less than two minutes, forcing two quick timeouts from Morehead State (6-6, 1-0 OVC). The score was tied at 13 with 13:04 left, but Morehead never led for the rest of the way, as Murray had a 41-33 halftime advantage, led by Witherspoon's 20 first-half points.
In the second half, Morehead used a run of its own to cut the lead down to two, when a fast break lay-up by senior guard Ramon Kelly put the score at 41-39 with 17:38 left. However, the Racers never let Morehead State back in the game, and pushed the lead out to as much as 24 points.
For Murray State, sophomore guard Trey Pearson had 12 points, and junior forward Issian Redding came off the bench to score 12 points and grab seven rebounds in just 12 minutes. Junior guard Darnell Hopkins had eight rebounds, and junior guard Keith Jenifer added in five assists and three steals.
For Morehead State, senior forward Chad McKnight had 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and sophomore guard Josh Reed and junior guard Quinton Smith had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
But the real story of the night was Witherspoon.
"Obviously, Witherspoon had a big night," Morehead State head coach Kyle Macy said. "We did not guard him the way we were supposed to at all. No hands in his face and when a few shots fall, you get the confidence in you."
"Offensive rebounding was key to Shawn's big night," Racer head coach Mick Cronin said. "He did a great job setting screens and getting guys open tonight. When you get four or five lay-ups, your confidence is high and you start making those 10-footers as well. Shawn had a great week of practice. I really challenged him after the Alabama-Birmingham game."
Witherspoon's performance was not the only thing Cronin was pleased with.
"I was happy with a few areas tonight," Cronin said. "One was our forced tempo on defense. We had 13 steals and forced them into making 26 turnovers. We made adjustments to our press. I was also extremely happy with our team taking care of the basketball tonight. We only made nine turnovers, which led to 28 more shot attempts than Morehead. Our offensive rebounding improved, as well as our free-throw shooting, 82 percent. We spent a lot of time on that in our practices since our last game.
"Keith, Trey, Darnell and ?Spoon all made a statement to the other guys tonight. You have to play hard like we did tonight to have a chance to win in this conference."
Next up for the Racers is a Saturday home game against Eastern Kentucky, which beat Tennessee-Martin 71-67 tonight. Tipoff time is set for 7:15 p.m. at the Regional Special Events Center.
