Racers Have Blue Christmas After 55-44 Loss To Samford

Thursday, December 21

Murray, Ky.

7:00 p.m.

Murray State

Samford

Racers Have Blue Christmas After 55-44 Loss To Samford

12/21/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

The Murray State Racers had their 15-game home winning streak snapped in a 55-44 loss to the Samford Bulldogs Thursday at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky. The loss dropped the Racers to 3-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 5-8 overall.

The Racers streak of 14 straight OVC regular season home wins was also halted.

Dwayne Paul grabbed an offensive rebound and scored for a 5-3 MSU lead, Randall Gulina scored on a runner for Samford to make it 11-9 MSU with 11:21 left in the half.

Ray George checked into the lineup at 10:31 playing in his second contest as a Racer. After playing three scoreless minutes Tuesday against Jacksonville State, George drove the lane and made his first points for a 13-11 MSU lead and moments later tipped in his own miss to put the Racers in front 15-12 at the 7:40 mark.

The Racers were doing a marvelous job in defending a Samford strength, the three-point shot, as the Bulldogs missed their first seven from long range.

Joe Ross Merritt hit Samford's first three with 3:23 left and the Bulldogs had an 18-17 lead.

MSU's Bruce Carter scored a three point play at 2:08 to push the Racers ahead 22-18.

However the half ended on a sour note when George missed a three with 14 seconds left and Samford's Kyle Peterson hit a three with three seconds on the clock to give Samford the edge after the first 20 minutes 25-22.

Samford started to get separation in the second half and used a 7-1 run to get control of the game. They scored on three straight possessions and pushed in front 34-29 on a lay-up by Gulina at 16:43, moments later the Bulldogs had their largest lead when Merritt rebounded his own miss and scored for a 39-30 Samford lead at 13:38.

The Racers went cold in the second half and at the 8:55 mark they were 3-12 from the field, while Samford was 6-12.

George ended a scoring drought for the Racers at the 7:04 mark to cut the Samford lead to 10. His jumper was the Racers first field goal since Carter scored at the 17:10 mark.

MSU cut the Bulldogs lead to eight with 5:40 left on free throws from George, but never got any closer.

Carter led the Racers with 19 points, George added 10.

The Racers now have an extended period before their next contest. MSU returns to action Jan. 2 at Eastern Illinois and play their next home game against Southeast Missouri State Jan. 8.

GAME NOTES:

The Racers home win streak of 15 when the night started was the 11th best in the nation. MSU unfortunately joins Iowa (20 straight), Western Kentucky (14 straight) and Nevada (12 straight) as teams who have had significant home winning streaks snapped this season. Gonzaga still has the best home streak in the land at 45 straight. Connecticut has the second best at 28 straight.

MSU also had their home OVC regular season win streak stopped at 14 straight. The last time MSU lost a home OVC regular season game was Feb. 10, 2005 against Tennessee Tech 72-68.

The Racers record in the RSEC is now 102-16 (.864).

The Racers total 44 points was the lowest for a MSU team in the RSEC in the nine seasons played here. Their previous low mark was 53 in a 57-53 loss to Southern Illinois here last season.

Shawn Witherspoon's sore foot kept him from playing against Samford, breaking a string of 43 straight starts. His streak began with the season opener last season at Cincinnati on Nov. 19, 2005.

This game was Murray-Calloway County night at the RSEC. Many local officials were in attendance including Murray Mayor Tom Rushing who celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Lita. Rushing played baseball at Murray State for legendary coach Johnny Reagan.

Tyler Holloway's free throw streak ended at a season-best 11 straight when he missed in the second half. Holloway is a career .862 free throw shooter at MSU hitting 44 of 51.