Murray State University Athletics
MSU Goes for 100th RSEC Win in OVC Opener
11/21/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Eastern Illinois (2-4)
at
Murray State(1-4)
Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006
Murray, Ky.
Regional Special Events Center
The Murray State Racers are back at home this Thanksgiving weekend to open play in the Ohio Valley Conference with a home game against Eastern Illinois. The Racers are 1-4 in the early going and coming off a close call at home against Belhaven and a tough road contest at Southern Illinois Sunday. In the Belhaven game, the Racers came off the deck and erased an 11-point deficit and beat the Blazers 73-72. Sunday the Racers battled Missouri Valley power SIU and dropped a 62-46 game.
The Racers are trying to win their 100th game in the Regional Special Events Center. This is the 9th season for the Racers in the RSEC and they currently sport a 99-15 overall mark and are tied with Butler and Northwestern State for the 11th longest home winning streak at 12 straight.
The Racers and Panthers are meeting for the 32nd time since the series began in 1981. The Racers have a 25-6 lead including a 15-1 mark in Murray. The only EIU win at Murray came in 2002 when the Panthers beat the Racers 88-86. The Racers 10 game win streak against EIU was snapped in their last meeting in Charleston last season 59-54. The two have met four times in the OVC Tournament with the Racers winning three.
Eastern Illinois is 2-4 after a Tuesday 63-61 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay at home. The Panthers were led in scoring by Mike Robinson with 16 points. Bobby Catchings added 15 with 13 points coming from Romain Martin. EIU started its season at the Iowa State Tournament where they went 0-3. EIU lost 70-60 to Louisiana-Monroe, and 64-55 to UC-Riverside. The Panthers took the host team, ISU down to the wire in a 56-54 loss. Their first win came at home against Indiana-South Bend 64-49. The threesome of Bobby Catchings, Mike Robinson and Jon'Tee Willheite have started every game for Head Coach Mike Miller. Catchings leads the team in scoring with 13.0 per game, while Robinson (The OVC Freshman of the Year last season) is scoring 11.0 per game and leads the team in assists with 13 and steals with 21. The Panthers are the only OVC team the Racers have suffered a loss to in their most recent meeting.
TRACKING THE OVC:
The first full week of games are finished in the Ohio Valley Conference. Here are some notes on how the Racers are faring. Bruce Carter ranks 10th in the league in scoring at 13.6 per game. Randal Gulina of Samford is the OVC's top scorer at the moment with 24.0 per game. Ed Horton is 9th in the league in assists with 2.8 per game. Will Ginn of Jacksonville State is the leader with 8.0 per game. Rob Kennedy is 2nd in the OVC with a .917 free throw percentage (11-12). With the total number of 12 attempted, Kennedy's percentage is more impressive than Belton Rivers of Tennessee Tech who is the leader with a percentage of 1.000 on four of four. Tyler Holloway ranks 7th in the league in three-point percentage at .458 (11-24). He ranks 6th in the league with 2.20 made three-pointers per game.OVC Team Statistics/MSU Ranking
Scoring Offense 6th 63.0
Scoring Defense 5th 71.8
Scoring Margin 8th -8.8
Free Throw % 1st .708
Field Goal % 2nd .458
Field Goal % Def. 7th .475
3-Point % 3rd .365
3-Point Made 7th 27
3-Point % Defense 7th .375
Rebounding Off. 10th 29.0
Rebounding Def. 2nd 29.4
Rebounding Margin 7th -0.4
Blocked Shots 5th 3.40
Assists 7th 11.0
Steals 4th 8.0
Turnover Margin 7th -2.40
Assist/TO Ratio 7th 0.61
Off. Rebounds 10th 10.8
Def. Rebounds 9th 18.2
MSU-EIU SERIES: The Series between the Racers and Panthers began with a game in the Evansville Holiday Tournament in 1981 with the Racers winning 71-70. MSU's Glenn Green and Ricky Hood led the Racers with 18 and 15 points for head coach Ron Greene. The Racers ended the season with a 20-8 mark and MSU's first OVC Championship since 1969. MSU and EIU played seven times prior to the Panthers joining the league in 1997.
Another memorable game in the series came at the RSEC in 1999 when the Racers 39 game home winning streak was on the line. MSU seemingly had the game in the bag when EIU's Kyle Hill hit a three pointer to send the game into overtime with 24 seconds left. With 1:30 left in the OT, EIU's Marc Polite hit a three and Merv Joseph completed a 5-0 run to force a second OT period. The Racers outscored the Panthers 11-6 and won the game 94-89 and pushed their home court win streak to 40 straight. Rod Murray scored 25 for the Racers and Isaac Spencer added 22. MSU ended up getting the streak to 45 before it ended.
HOME STREAK: MSU will be trying for their 13th straight win at home. The Racers streak is tied with Northwestern State and Butler for 11th best in the nation. Here are the other top home winning streaks currently as of Monday.
Here is the current MSU home win streak:
12-28-05 Rice Won 83-65
1-5-06 Tenn. State Won 75-67
1-7-06 SE Missouri Won 81-68
1-9-06 Eastern Ill. Won 66-65
1-12-06 Austin Peay Won 67-56
1-26-06 Tenn. Tech Won 55-51
1-30-06 Samford Won 59-38
2-4-06 Jacksonville St. Won 78-72
2-18-06 Illinois-Chicago Won 72-68
2-25-06 UT-Martin Won 81-63
2-28-06 UT-Martin Won 65-52
11-16-06 Belhaven Won 73-72
OVC STREAK: The Racers are also trying to extend their 12 game home OVC winning streak in regular season games. The last MSU loss in an OVC regular season game was Feb. 10, 2005 when Tennessee Tech beat the Racers 72-68.
HALF LEAD: The Racers have enjoyed the lead at half time only once this season when they led Belhaven 42-40.
GREAT START: Bruce Carter's 19 points against San Diego State puts him second on the list of best scorers of players in their first game at Murray State since 1984. Only Antoine Whelchel's 27 against Gardner-Webb in 2000 is better.
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon got a little closer to becoming the 33rd student-athlete to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club when he scored nine points against SIU. Shawn has 816 career points and is 184 points from the magic mark. Witherspoon has started 35 straight games and has scored in 78 straight. The last time Shawn failed to score was Jan. 26, 2004 during his freshman season when the Racers dropped a game at Texas A&M CC.
EARLY OVC OPENER: The EIU game marks the earliest OVC opener ever for the Racers. Never before have they played a league game in November. Since 1998 MSU has played an OVC game in early December winning them all including last season at home against Eastern Kentucky 80-51.
