Murray State
Southeast Missouri State
Racers run into hot SEMO team, take a tough 61-58 loss at home
2/5/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Junior guard Keith Jenifer made a career-high seven shots from the field tonight, but his team-high 15-point effort was not enough as the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks defeated the Murray State Racers, 61-58.
"This was a tough loss at home," said Jenifer, who also finished with game-highs of five assists and 40 minutes. "They out-rebounded us and out-hustled us. We didn't shoot the ball well and we relied too much on our offense. But we can't worry about tonight. We need to finish up our homestand with a few wins."
Murray State head coach Mick Cronin said that the Racers simply ran into one the hottest team in the conference.
"Give SEMO credit, they are an excellent team," Cronin said. "From seeing the film, myself and the coaching staff felt like they were the best team in the league. Their record does not reflect how good they are. We played better than we did Thursday (against Eastern Illinois), but not good enough to beat a good team."
Sophomore guard Terrick Willoughby led the Redhawks (11-10, 6-4 OVC) with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-5 from the three-point line. Two players recorded double-doubles, with Reggie Golson scoring 15 points and 11 rebounds and Dainmon Gonner adding 12 points and 10 rebounds. Derek Winans also chipped in 10 points for the Redhawks.
For the Racers (12-8, 7-3 OVC), junior forward Issian Redding was the only player besides Jenifer in double-figures, scoring 10 points off the bench. Trey Pearson had nine points, ending his streak of scoring double-digit points at six games. Junior guard Darnell Hopkins led the Racers in rebounding with six.
A close game for all 40 minutes, the Racers took the lead at 24-22 with 7:09 in the first half on a jumper by Jenifer. Southeast Missouri trailed the rest of the half, and the halftime score was 34-30 in favor of Murray State.
A jumper by Gonner at the 15:04 mark in the second half gave Southeast Missouri the lead at 39-38. The game then went back and forth until a Willoughby three-pointer with 9:10 left gave SEMO the 51-49 advantage, a lead the Redhawks would not relinquish the rest of the game.
Cronin knows that if his team is to win the conference, they must learn to defend better.
"SEMO's one weakness was rebounding, and they out-rebounded us by five," Cronin said. "As long as we don't defend, we are a pretender in this conference. Our defensive field-goal percentage is entirely too high. I told our guys we had to get better on defense- we can't afford to allow 47- to 50-percent shooting every game and expect to win. That's just basketball. You look at any team who is on top of their conference in America and their defensive field-goal percentage is low. Last year, Austin Peay and ourselves were 1-2 in the conference because of defense."
What began earlier today as a three-way tie (Samford, Murray State, Tennessee Tech) for first place in the league ended in a more clear picture of the league standings. With a win over Austin Peay in overtime, Samford now holds sole possesion of first place with a conference mark of 8-2. A Tennessee Tech double-overtime loss to Jacksonville State combined with a Racer loss gives Murray State and Tennessee Tech a tie for second place with a 7-3 conference record, only one game behind.
The Racers return to action on Feb. 10, when they host Tennessee Tech on a nationally televised game by Fox Sports Net. This could be a decisive game at the end of the year standings, since Murray State and Tennessee Tech play only once this season as part of the OVC unbalanced schedule. Tipoff time is set for 8 p.m. All Racer fans are encouraged to wear gold.
