Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Racers force overtime with EKU, win on late free throws, 80-78
1/8/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
After sprinting the entire length of the floor in five seconds and drawing a foul, junior guard Keith Jenifer calmly sank both of his only two free-throw attempts of the night with 0.3 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime. In the overtime period, the Racers outscored the Eastern Kentucky Colonels 7-5 and and came away with an 80-78 victory in Ohio Valley Conference play tonight.
Sophomore guard Trey Pearson led all scorers with 24 points, with 19 of those points coming in the second half and overtime period. Junior forward Issian Redding added 17 points off the bench, and sophomore forward Shawn Witherspoon made his case for OVC Player of the Week honors, scoring 16 more points in his second consecutive big-scoring game. Pearson connected on eight of 11 free-throw attempts, putting the game away for the Racers (7-5, 2-0 OVC) down the stretch.
"We've come together through this season," Pearson said. "We're making strides every day. This win will do a lot for our confidence."
Junior guard Matt Witt led Eastern Kentucky (9-4, 1-1 OVC) with 18 points, while the other four starters had double-digit points as well. Junior forward Alonzo Hird had 16 points and nine rebounds, while junior guards Zach Ingles and Jason McLeish had 16 and 11 points, respectively. However, the most interesting stat line of the night belonged to Eastern Kentucky's Michael Haney. The senior forward had 10 points, grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, dished out a team-high seven assists with no turnovers, and also added in one block and one steal in 37 minutes.
"We saw two teams that played really hard," Eastern Kentucky head coach Travis Ford said. "Both teams wanted to win. Murray State is a heck of a basketball team; give them credit. They never stopped playing and they made big plays when it counted, and that was the difference tonight."
Eastern Kentucky came out of the gates red-hot, using an 8-0 run in 2:39 to push their lead to 10-2 with 17:03 left in the first half. Murray State recovered, and the game gradually switched leads until the first of two made free throws by Witherspoon made the game a 24-24 tie with 6:24 left. A lay-up by Redding with 0:31 left in the first half pushed Murray State's lead out to eight, its biggest of the night, before a pair of McLeish free throws made the halftime score 39-33 in Murray State's favor.
A jumper by Pearson pushed the Racer lead back to eight with 19:28 left in the second half, and Murray State had the lead until the 11:15 mark, when a lay-up by Hird gave Eastern Kentucky a 50-49 advantage. The lead swayed back and forth until Eastern Kentucky pushed the lead out to its biggest margin of the night, a five-point lead, on another Hird lay-up with 2:45 to go.
"What I was most happy with was the way we handled being down by five with 2:30 left," Racer head coach Mick Cronin said. "We kept telling our players to keep their heads up and get a basket. We put pressure on them and were able to get a few stops."
Redding was fouled while hitting a lay-up with 0:32 seconds left to cut the deficit to one at 72-71, but he could not connect on the free throw to tie it up. Eastern Kentucky called a timeout, and Murray State applied pressure to the Eastern Kentucky backcourt, forcing a turnover when an errant pass sailed into the hands of Shawn Witherspoon. Witherspoon found freshman forward Justin Orr, who appeared to have a wide-open lay-up in sight, when Ingles appeared from behind to strip Orr. The ball ended up in McLeish's hands, and Murray State immediately fouled with 0:06 left. After McLeish missed his first free throw, Murray State called a timeout to set up their next offensive play.
"We practice that play quite a bit," Cronin said. "It's called a sprint play, where one of our guys gets it and takes the ball the length of the floor and tries to get to the basket."
McLeish connected on his second free throw, giving Eastern Kentucky the 73-71 advantage. The ball was inbounded to Jenifer, who took the ball the length of the floor and drew a foul from Witt with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.
"I can't say enough about Keith," Cronin said. “I was real happy with the way he stepped up late. He had 13 deflections, three steals, and nine assists in 43 minutes. His outstanding defense was real big for us."
"He's a good point guard," Ford said of Jenifer. "He's a key player for them. He doesn't get points, but he stepped up and made two clutch shots."
"To get a win against a team that will undoubtedly finish in the top three in this league, tonight was a big learning experience," Cronin said. "In a game like tonight, you got to find a way to win."
Murray State's next game is on Jan. 13, when they will travel to Samford. Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m.
