Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
San Diego State
Half-Court Shot By SDSU Downs Racers 87-84 in Season Opener
11/10/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Billy Kennedy era of Murray State Basketball got off to a rousing start in Moraga, Calif. Friday when the Racers took San Diego State to the buzzer, and lost on a miracle half-court shot by Brandon Heath 87-84 in the first game of the Shamrock Invitational hosted by Saint Mary's College.
The final seconds were played at a frantic pace that ended with an amazing buzzer beating shot.
The drama kicked into high speed when MSU's Bruce Carter hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 84 with 15 seconds left.
Afterwards MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy reflected on his first game with the Racers.
“We're disappointed we lost but we did some good things,” Kennedy said. “We didn't beat them up in the locker room because we've got to come back tomorrow and play.”
In the first half, the Racers connected on four straight three-pointers with Holloway hitting three and Shawn Witherspoon hitting the other. Witherspoon's long shot put the Racers up 12-6 and Holloway's third straight gave the Racers a 15-8 lead just over five minutes into the contest.
The Aztecs roared back to tie the game at 19 with 12:00 left in the half on a three-pointer by Brandon Heath.
The big story of the half was the Racers mounting foul troubles. With 8:29 before half, MSU had nine team fouls, while the Aztecs had but two. The Racers had trouble getting to the line and didn't attempt one until 12:25 left in the game.
With 8:05 before half Lorenzo Wade's steal and dunk put the Racers down 31-24.
The Racers slugged their way back into a tie game 34-34 with 4:20 before half when Holloway nailed a long three, Curtis Parker made a lay-up after stealing the inbounds pass and Daniel Ard's first shot was a jumper that tied the game.
SDSU ended the half outscoring the Racers 7-0 to lead 41-34 at the break. Heath, who is the reigning MVP of the Mountain West Conference scored five of the seven in the Aztecs run and ended the game with 27 points.
Holloway and Tony Easley made jumpers to start the second half for MSU as they trailed 43-38, then Heath hit a three-pointer to put SDSU ahead 49-40 with 17:30 left in the game.
The Racers still had a lot of fight left in this opening match.
With 9:48 left, Dwayne Paul hit two free throws to cut the
Carter started a fast break off of a SDSU miss and Holloway hit a jumper just inside the arc to cut the lead to 61-58. At this point, Holloway was 6-9 from the field including 4-6 from behind the three-point line.
Again the Racers cut the lead to three when Witherspoon made a high flying shot down the lane and was fouled. He made the free throw and the SDSU lead was 64-61.
After a SDSU miss, Carter nailed a three and immediately stole the inbounds pass and hit another lay-up and the Racers had their first lead of the second half open half 66-64 with 7:22 left in the game.
Heath hit two free throws to tied the game at 66 with 7:22 left.
The Racers tied it one more time when Paul hit two free throws for a 68-68 game at the 6:33 mark.
When Heath hit a three from the top of the key with 3:55 left, the Racers were down 75-69.
Again, the Racers mounted a rally and cut the SDSU lead to 77-76 when Paul hit a three-pointer with 2:50 remaining.
With 25.7 left, Holloway continued his hot game with another three-pointer from the corner which was followed by a quick MSU timeout trailing 84-81.
That set the stage for the dramatic final 15 seconds in which the Racers lost a heartbreaker.
Holloway finished with a career high 23 points in 32 minutes on a sizzling 8-11 from the field and 5-7 from three-point range. He was also 2-2 from the free throw line. Bruce Carter came off the bench and tossed in 19 with a 7-10 effort from the field. Shawn Witherspoon fouled out of the game with 2:20 left with 13 points on a perfect night from the field when he hit all five field goal attempts. Dwayne Paul was the final Racer in double-figures with 10 points.
The Racers ended the game shooting 59 percent (32-54), while
The Racers didn't make it to the free throw line until Carter hit two with 12:25 left. MSU was 9-9 from the line for the game, SDSU hit 21-25 for 84 percent.
MSU forced SDSU into 21 turnovers, but gave it up 24 times. The Racers scored 30 points off of turnovers and the Aztecs scored 29.
On the boards, the Racers held their own against a veteran SDSU team and trailed 27-24.
The Racers play their second game of the Shamrock Invitational Saturday at 7 p.m. CST when they face the Falcons of Seattle-Pacific.
GAME NOTES:
The meeting today with
Shawn Witherspoon came into the contest needing 235 points to join the MSU 1,000-Point Club.
His 13 points gives him 778 for his career and he needs 222 to get into the club. There are 32 members of the club at MSU.
This season opener marks the second straight year in which the Racers have taken an opponent to the wire. In 2005, the Racers lost in overtime at
Here are the most recent season openers for the Racers:
1992
1993
1994 Campbellsville Home Won 138-88
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000 Gardner-Web Home Won 103-76
2001 West
2002 West
2003 Wagner Home Won 92-68
2004 SIU-Edwardsville Home Won 75-67
2005
2006
The Racers hit 11 three-pointers against
Bruce Carter's 19 points puts him second on the list of best scorers of players in their first game at
Additional quotes from Billy Kennedy:
“I like the fact that we competed and we made the extra pass and found guys open. We made a lot of shots tonight and I thought we fought hard. The areas we were concerned about were exposed and that happens against good teams.”
“We're having to play some guys out of position right now, and the turnovers were from the young guys that came in and were going to fast. They'll get better at that.”
“
“We've got to get tougher, we've got to grow up and block out. It's the fundamentals of the game that I strongly believe in. Our transition defense at times wasn't very good and our shot selection and all of the turnovers hurt us.”
“
