Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Southeast Missouri State
Racers move to 5-1 in OVC with home win over Southeast Missouri
1/7/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Racers head coach Mick Cronin said he did remind the team of those games in the unlikely event they had forgotten. "You know how kids are," Cronin said. "When they came in from warm ups, all I had to do was write down the score from those games." The score of both losses was 61-58. The second of which knocked the Racers out of the OVC Tournament first round for the first time since 1987.
In the opening four minutes and 38 seconds the Racers showed everyone that they were ready to roll, grabbing an 11-0 lead.
MSU scored baskets close to the rim by Issian Redding and Pearson Griffith for a 4-0 lead.
A steal and easy lay up by Shawn Witherspoon forced Southeast Missouri coach Gary Garner to call a timeout and the MSU lead was 6-0 with 1:33 gone in the half.
Murray State forced a shot clock violation and then scored on a Witherspoon drive and a three pointer from Darnell Hopkins for an 11-0 with 15:38 before half time.
The Red Hawks gained their composure and came back to cut the Racers lead to 14-7 after a Roy Booker jumper and a fast break dunk by Terrick Willoughby.
Southeast cut the MSU lead to 33-32 with 2:45 left on a jumper by Eric Jones, but MSU's Issian Redding answered to put the Racers up 36-32.
The Red Hawks finally drew even with the Racers with 1:15 left on a Booker shot in the paint, the game was tied 36-36.
Justin Orr hit a three pointer and Trey Pearson added a free throw in the final 40 seconds to give the Racers a lead at the break 40-36.
In the second half, the Racers got the ball inside to Pearson Griffith for a hoop and a foul to lead 46-38 with 16:16 left in the game. Moments later a three pointer by Darnell Hopkins gave the Racers a 49-40 advantage with 15:30 remaining.
But the Red Hawks would not go away.
Willoughby hit a three to cut the lead to 51-47, and after a MSU miss, SEMO's Eric Jones hit two free throws to cut the lead to 51-49 with 12:52 left.
Witherspoon scored a three point play on a put back, MSU had the lead 55-49, and moments later Keith Jenifer added two free throws for a 57-49 MSU lead with 10:12 left.
The Racers finally pushed ahead 62-53 on a bucket inside by Chuck Johnson and a fast break three pointer from Justin Or. MSU led 62-53 with 8:30 left.
After Andrias Thornton missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, Witherspoon fed Orr for an easy basket, and the Racers had matched their largest lead of the game 64-53 with 7:50 remaining.
Another three with 3:33 left by Redding put the Racers in front 74-62 and the Racers brought home an 81-68 victory.
MSU performed much better on defense in the second half. After allowing SEMO to shoot .65 percent from the field in the first half on 15-23 shooting, they held the Red Hawks to 33 percent in the second half on 6-18 shooting.
The Racers also erased a three rebound deficit at half, and ended tied in that stat with SEMO at 30 each.
For the second straight game the Racers put four players in double figure scoring: Shawn Witherspoon, Issian Redding and Darnell Hopkins each scored 15 and Justin Orr added 11.
Roy Booker led Southeast Missouri with 20.
Mick Cronin was well aware that Southeast would bring everything they had in this game.
"This was an extremely hard-fought game, which was exactly what I expected," Cronin said. "SEMO has become a tough team in the last two to three weeks, they've really found an identity. Even in their loss to Illinois, I was impressed with their effort."
Cronin added, "In their last OVC game against Eastern Illinois, they led by 15 or 20 all night on the road, which was a very impressive win in the OVC."
The Racers host Eastern Illinois Monday at the RSEC. MSU has won nine straight against the Panthers, they have not lost to EIU since Jan 17, 2002 at Murray 88-86. MSU has won three straight against them at the RSEC.
MSU Notes:
The Racers are 8-4 overall and have won three straight for the second time this season.
In their eighth season in the Regional Special Events Center, MSU is now 89-16. Since losing here to Southern Illinois Dec. 28, they have consecutive victories over Rice (83-65), Tennessee State (75-67), and Southeast Missouri (81-68)
The Racers break a two-game home losing streak to Southeast. The Red Hawks are one of only six teams since 1975 to accomplish that feat. Last season, the Red Hawks beat the Racers at the RSEC Feb. 5, 2005 and Mar. 1, by the same score each time, 61-58. Conversely, the Racers own a two-game win streak of their own at SEMO.
Mick Cronin is now 4-2 against Southeast Missouri, and 53-21 overall in his third season at Murray State
In the Mick Cronin era the Racers are 31-5 at home and Cronin's overall mark in OVC games is 33-8, including OVC tournament games.
MSU is now 206-25 since 1990 when they score 80-plus points and 34-1 in the Cronin era.
Additonal Quotes:
Mick Cronin: "Tonight we wanted to improve in three areas- blocking out, screening, and talking and communicating on defense. I think we improved on all three of those areas tonight. We created a lot of turnovers early and forced them into shot clock violations and steals for easy layups."
Gary Garner: "We don't force a lot of turnovers period, but two turnovers for an entire game is really, really good. We had 13 turnovers and I thought that wasn't bad for an entire game, against Murray State especially. I really tip my hat to them and really give them credit. Murray played well offensively and showed a lot of patience. Murray State is good, a really good basketball team, and I was very impressed with them tonight. The biggest difference was that they wore us down and offensive rebounding. They pressured us so much, so in the second half we wanted to get to the free throw line, and we did that, but we couldn't keep them off the boards in the second half."
"I really like Shawn Witherspoon. He's a really good player; I've liked him since he was a freshman. We also had a big matchup problem with Pearson Griffith; he has really improved since last year."
