Murray State
Eastern Illinois
.jpg&height=300&type=webp)
Hopkins Perfect As Racers Survive EIU Upset Bid
1/9/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The story of the first half was the shooting of senior Darnell Hopkins who made all four of his three point attempts.
His three with 13:45 left before half gave the Racers an 18-13 lead.
With 9:55 in the half the Racers threatened to build a significant lead.
MSU made a steal and when Issian Redding hit a three pointer, the Racers had a 27-19 lead.
With 1:02 left in the half, the Racers lead was down to four, but a fast break lay up by Shawn Witherspoon, two free throws from Trey Pearson and a buzzer beating jumper, the Racers enjoyed a 40-30 lead at the break.
The Racers quickly moved their lead to 13 at the start of the second half on Hopkins' fifth three pointer and a slam dunk by Pearson Griffith. The lead was 45-32 with 17:55 left in the game.
Eastern Illinois had plenty of fight left and managed to cut the Racers lead to 58-55 with 7:10 left on a fast break hoop and a foul by Mike Robinson.
EIU had a chance to tie moments later with the score 60-58 and 4:45 left, but Trey Pearson picked off a pass at the top of the key and scored and easy basket to put the Racers up 62-58.
With 2:51 left, Eastern was forced into a shot clock violation when Keith Jenifer locked down Robinson on the left wing and he was unable to get a shot off.
But MSU could not increase the lead.
With 2:30 left, Witherspoon missed a three pointer and EIU had another chance to cut into the four-point lead.
And they did when Robinson hit a free throw line jumper over Pearson to make it a 62-60 MSU lead with 2:01 left.
With 1:43 left Orr had his pass to the block picked off and when Josh Gomes hit a short jumper, the game was tied at 62 with 1:23 left.
On the next MSU possession, Griffith lost the ball in a crowd and then committed a foul. But when Robinson went to the line with 1:01 left, he missed the front end of the one-and-one.
The Racers worked the ball to the corner and Darnell Hopkins drove the baseline and scored to give MSU a 64-62 lead with: 39 left.
Seconds later, Justin Orr stepped to the top of the key and made steal, his slam dunk with :28 left gave MSU a 66-62 lead.
EIU took much of the next 20 seconds deciding what they would do, and finally Gomes three point attempt over Griffith was no good, but the ball was touched last by MSU, but by then precious time had been whittled from the clock and with 3.1 seconds left the game was virtually over.
EIU inbounded the ball and a three by George Tandy was good at the buzzer, but the Racers found a way to survive 66-65.
Hopkins ended the game perfect from the field in eight shots including hitting all seven of his three point attempts.
MSU head coach Mick Cronin praised his senior guard who has excelled since being put into a starting role a few games ago.
"Darnell Hopkins is getting more comfortable," Cronin said. "He's a great kid with a great attitude. He used to have one weakness, he used to play at 100 miles per hour every play. Now he's learned when to downshift, when to read the defenses and know when to take the three and when to drive."
"Tonight he was definitely the go-to guy for us, and I'm really happy to see the way he handled the situation," Cronin added. "I brought him here because of his toughness, and he has great intensity and great hustle."
Shawn Witherspoon isn't having a great time shooting three pointers, he's missed his last 12, but tonight he came very close to having a rare triple-double.
Witherspoon finished the game with 11 rebounds, eight points and seven assists.
No one can remember a triple-double ever in the Murray State program.
MSU now gets ready for a Thursday game against Austin Peay at home. The tip off has been moved up to 6:00 p.m. and the game will be aired by ESPNU and UPN The Beat WQWQ. The Lady Racers will play APSU at 3:00 p.m.
MSU Notes:
The Racers now lead the all-time series with Eastern Illinois 25-4. MSU is 16-1 against them at home and have won the last six against EIU in Murray. MSU has also won the last 10 in the series overall.
The Racers are now 90-16 in the 8th season of basketball in the Regional Special Events Center. They have won four straight at home since losing to Southern Illinois Dec. 28.
MSU again had the lead at the half tonight (40-30) and have had the lead at the break in four straight and nine of 13 games this season. They are 8-0 this season when leading at the half.
The Racers continue to set a blistering pace in the assist category. With 21 tonight, they now have 252 on the season (19.4 average), the best in the OVC. The Racers are ranked 8th in the country in NCAA division-one.
Mick Cronin in his third season at MSU is now 54-21, and 32-5 at home. His record against OVC teams is 33-8 including OVC tournament games.
Darnell Hopkins was 7 for 7 from three point range and 8 for 8 from the field. His 23 points is a career high. Hopkins had 21 twice before, last season against Southern Illinois and St. Mary's. MSU's three point percentage single game record is 8 for 8 set by James Singleton in 2003 also against Eastern Illinois.
Additonal Quotes:
Darnell Hopkins: "We had good intensity at the beginning of the game, because we knew they were a good team, regardless of their record. Gomes is one of the best players in the league, he's a good shooter from mid-range and from 3-pointers, and Robinson is a very good point guard."
"Coach recruited me for defense. I try to work them and get them tired and try not to let them get shots."
(On the play that put MSU up by two with under a minute left) "The defender thought I was getting ready to shoot a three, so I drove in and tried to get a high percentage shot."
Mick Cronin: "This Eastern Illinois team may have turned the corner at Austin Peay the other night, that was a two-point game late in the game. Last year they were 8-8 in the conference and pretty much everybody is back, and they also have a better point guard in Robinson."
"We didn't defend tonight, I was very disappointed in our defense- they shot 6-of-8 from 3's. And we had no interior presence. We didn't get the ball inside and when we did get it inside, we're not finishing around the basket. We have to get more production out of the five spot. Everybody in the league has good perimeter players. The five spot is the reason why we competed with Cincinnati and Tennessee. Right now, we lack the physical competitiveness. Tonight we had SEC officials and we had the chance to really mix it up, get physical, and bang inside, but we didn't. You can't be a finesse player when you're not one."
"Darnell Hopkins did a tremendous job getting a high percentage shot inside the last minute, attacking the paint. That was a "go-to" type play. On the other end, defensively we did a good job pressuring the ball and we came up with that loose-ball steal and dunk to put us up by four. I then called the timeout because we got close to fouling them when they shot their three, so I just told our guys to not put your hands up and don't contest the three, because I didn't want them to get a chance to tie the game up with a four point play."
"Two good things came out of tonight. For one, we won the game. It's a long year and you're not going to play your best every night. Two, we had to execute late in the game on both ends of the floor in a close game, which is also what we had to do when we faced against Cincinnati and Southern Illinois and we couldn't close out the game. Fortunately, tonight we found a way to win."
"I think we should be 6-1 in the conference right now, because of our schedule and all our home games. I know we have a tough game on Thursday against Austin Peay. I've been a part of three of those games and you can throw the records out the window. They actually should be 6-1 in the conference if Zac Schlader would have played at Tennessee-Martin. It's a huge rivalry game at home and we have to find a way to win."
