Racers Prepare for OVC Battle With JSU

Jacksonville State

Murray State

Tuesday Dec. 19

7:30 p.m.

Regional Special Events Center

Murray Ky.

(Note: Quotes from Billy Kennedy's weekly news conference can be found on page two of this article.)

The Murray State Racers are back at home for two Ohio Valley Conference games this week beginning with Jacksonville State. MSU and the Gamecocks have a brief history and only began playing each other upon JSU's entry into the OVC in 2004. The two have played five times, all won by the Racers. The most important game to date was their meeting last March in the OVC Tournament semi-finals in Nashville, Tenn. which the Racers won 78-72. JSU had the Racers down by one with 5:19 left, but MSU went on to claim a spot in the title game.

Jacksonville State enters the contest with a 3-6 mark including 1-2 in the OVC. Junior Will Ginn's half-court basket with less than one second to play gave the Gamecocks their first OVC victory in a 70-67 final over Southeast Missouri on Sunday in Cape Girardeau. The Gamecocks are the second-best scoring team in the league at 70.3 points per game, they're ranked ninth in the OVC in scoring defense and give up 72.8 points per game. JSU ranks first in the league in free throw shooting (.710) and second in assists (15.5 per game). Courtney Bradley ranks third in the OVC in scoring with 18.6 points per game, while Dorien Brown is ranked 13th at 13.0. Bradley ranks third in the league in rebounding (9.2). The JSU win at SEMO was big because the gamecocks had lost their first two OVC games at home 54-53 to Samford and to UT-Martin 70-69.

The Racers carry the 12th longest home court winning streak into this game at 14 straight and are 101-15 all-time in the Regional Special Events Center with an amazing .869 winning percentage. The Racers current streak began last season on Dec. 28 with a win over Rice. MSU's 45-game home win streak from 1996 to 2000 still stands as one of the most impressive feats in program history. The Racers are also trying to extend an impressive winning streak in home OVC regular season games. MSU's last loss was Feb. 10, 2005 to Tennessee Tech (72-68). The Racers have won 13 straight since.

GAME NOTES

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 Jack. St. Won 78-72

2-18-06 Ill.-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

11-25-06 Eastern Ill. Won 53-50

12-4-06 Anderson Won 78-33

OVC HOME STREAK: The Racers are also trying to extend their OVC home regular season win streak to 14. MSU hasn't lost an OVC home game in the regular season since Feb. 10, 2005 when Tennessee Tech beat the Racers 72-68.

MSU VS JSU: The Racers and Gamecocks first met when JSU joined the OVC in 2004. The Racers have won all five meetings since. Their last meeting came in March when the Racers beat JSU in the OVC Tournament semi-finals.

2004 Home Won 89-84

2005 Away Won 77-61

2005 Away Won 91-72

2006 Home Won 78-72

2006 Neutral Won 69-64

COUNTY NIGHTS: The Jacksonville State game is Marshall County night at the RSEC, MSU Athletics will also honor all current military. The Samford game on Thursday is Murray-Calloway County night.

MSU PLAYERS OVC RANKINGS: Bruce Carter is leading the Racers in scoring at 11.3 points per game and is the 20th top scorer in the OVC. The leader is Samford's Randall Gulina at 19.9 per game.

Shawn Witherspoon is the 16th best rebounder at 5.6 per game. Amadi McKenzie of Tennessee Tech is the leader with 9.5 per game.

Ed Horton has jumped to sixth in the league with 3.82 assists per game. DeAndre Bray of Jacksonville State is the leader at 5.88 per game. Horton is also ranked sixth in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.68. The OVC leader is Brandan Callahan at 2.64.

Tyler Holloway ranks sixth in the OVC in three-point percentage at .419. The leader is Derek Wright of Austin Peay who shoots .588. Holloway is also ranked fifth in three-pointers made per game with 2.36. The OVC leader is Ladarious Weaver of Tennessee State with 3.25.

MOVING ON UP: Since the last NCAA statistics report, the Racers have made a strong move in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense. MSU moved from 224 in the nation to 161 in scoring defense by lowering opponents per game points average from 71.5 to 67.6. MSU went from 221 to 163 by lowering opponents field goal percentage from .435 to .431.

BALANCING ACT: Billy Kennedy has used the first part of the season to experiment with different combinations of players on the floor. So far MSU has played an average of 10.7 players in each game. This has also led to very balanced scoring with the Racers having no less than seven players make the scoring column in every game. Four times MSU has had 10 or more players score. The season low is seven which came in the season opener and the last time out against Morehead State.

CURRENT OVC STREAKS: The Racers have won five straight against Jacksonville State and are 2-0 at home against them. Currently, the only teams the Racers don't have a win streak against is Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois and Tennessee Tech. MSU has won only the last meeting with EIU and TTU, and lost last week at EKU.

MSU's current win streaks in the OVC are as follows: UT-Martin 11, Morehead State 7, Jacksonville State 5, Austin Peay 4, SE Missouri 2, Tennessee State 2, Samford 2.

CARTER BOUNCES BACK: MSU junior Bruce Carter now has two straight games with double-figure scoring after averaging 6.5 ppg in the previous five games. Carter scored 14 last week at Eastern Kentucky and did the same at Morehead State, but also added 11 rebounds for the first MSU double-double this season. Carter was named the OVC's Newcomer of the Week for his efforts. He also seems to perform better in a starting role as opposed to coming off the bench. In four games as a starter Carter scores 13.5 ppg, while he scores 10.0 ppg when coming off the bench.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Carter's performance against Morehead State was MSU's first double-double since last Feb. 25 when Shawn Witherspoon had 17 points and 13 rebounds at home against UT-Martin. Witherspoon has previously missed a double-double Nov. 25 against Eastern Illinois when he had 11 rebounds, but scored only seven points.

KENNEDY SCORES BIG: Junior Rob Kennedy came off the bench at Morehead State and provided the Racers a lift when they trailed in the first half. Kennedy ended the game with 14 points and tied his career best which was also 14 points last season against the Eagles. His five made field field goals and nine field goal attempts was also a career best.

FOR STARTERS: The Racers have used the same starting lineup in the last two games: Witherspoon, Holloway, Horton, Carter and Parker. Witherspoon and Holloway have started all 11 games this season. MSU has used eight different lineups so far.

REBOUNDERS NEEDED: The Racers have struggled in rebounding the last two games; Losing by six to Eastern Kentucky and by 12 to Morehead State. MSU has lost the rebounding stat in three of the last four games.

LONG RANGE SHOOTING: MSU shot .500 from three-point range in the last game against Morehead State (6-12). It was their best single game since the season opener against San Diego State on Nov. 10 when they hit for .524 (11-21).

DISHING IT OUT: Ed Horton has led the Racers in assists in eight straight games. Horton has totalled 42 assists this season and ranks sixth in the OVC with 3.82 per game.

SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon continues to get closer to becoming the 33rd student-athlete to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club. He is 119 points away from the magic number. Witherspoon has started 42 straight games and scored in 84 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.

KEVIN THOMAS: Racer junior guard Kevin Thomas is set to make his season debut this week after recovering from knee surgery. Thomas comes to MSU from Compton, Calif JC where he was named All-California Community College Honorable Mention twice. Impressive as there are 65 junior colleges in the state.

NEW FACES, NEW PLACES: After eight seasons of being the head coach at Centenary and Southeastern Louisiana Billy Kennedy faced a large number of teams. At MSU in his first season, Kennedy is facing many teams for the first time. Nine of the Racers first 13 opponents are first timers for Kennedy. Jacksonville State and Samford are teams that Kennedy is familiar with. He is 2-2 against JSU and 1-4 against Samford.

OVC EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament is set for March 2-3 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn. The OVC has announced its “Early Bird Special” offering ticket discounts and free concessions. Check the front page of ovcsports.com for details. The special offer is good through Feb. 20.

OVC VIDEO STREAMING: OVC member institutions are receiving great reviews in the first year of offering live streaming video. All OVC games are being offered to fans and media with live video and home team announcers audio at www.ovcsports.tv.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: On Dec. 19, 2002 the Racers scored a knockout punch of the Sycamores of Indiana State at the RSEC. At the time, the 85-39 win for the Racers was the largest margin of victory, 46 points and the lowest total for an opponent in the RSEC. MSU led 48-18 at the half and hit 14 three-pointers which was only three shy of the team record. The Racers had a balanced scoring attack: Rick Jones 18, Chris Shumate 13, Antoine Whelchel 13, James Singleton 13.

(Note: Quotes from Billy Kennedy's weekly news conference can be found on page two of this article.)

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