Murray State University Athletics
MSU Searching For Split At Morehead State
12/8/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State
(3-6) (1-1 OVC)
at
Morehead State
(4-3) (1-0 OVC)
Saturday 3:15 p.m. CST
Johnson Arena
Morehead, Ky.
The Murray State Racers roll into Morehead State stinging from the buzzer beating three-pointer that cost them the game at Eastern Kentucky Thursday night. With the game seemingly in hand for the Racers leading by three with 3.3 seconds left, EKU's Mike Rose hit a 40-foot shot at the buzzer to force the game into overtime where the Colonels outscored the Racers 14-8 to win the game 72-66.
OVC Preseason Player of the Year Shawn Witherspoon played an outstanding game and was on the floor for 42 of the 45 minutes played with 18 points on 8-17 shooting.
The game marked the Racers first overtime game under head coach Billy Kennedy and their first in 20 games since last Feb. 2 when MSU won 69-68 at Austin Peay. It was the Racers 35th overtime game since 1983, MSU has won 22 and have now won four of their last six. Since 1983, the Racers have never played back-to-back overtime games.
MSU enters this game having lost three of their last four and had the lead late in the games against EKU and Illinois-Chicago. MSU is trying now for a split on the "Death Valley" trip after having swept the trip twice, having been swept once and split the pair of games twice in the last five seasons.
The Eagles are coming off a league opening 70-66 win Thursday at home against Austin Peay. Quentin Pryor led the Eagles with 20 points, he has also leads the team in scoring with 14.1 per game and in three-point shooting (14-29 .483). Shaun Williams is a workhorse in the paint and scores 13.3 per game. Williams scored a season-high 24 points in the Eagles win over East Tennessee State. The Eagles had competitive losses at Penn State (63-46) and against Marshall (81-80), they also have wins over ETSU (72-56) and Western Illinois (57-56). The Eagles are the third best scoring team in the OVC (66.4 ppg) and rank third in scoring defense (64.1 ppg).They also lead the OVC in three-point percentage and are making the shot 39 percent of the time.
