Murray State
UT Martin
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Racers Advance To OVC Semifinals With Win Over UT-Martin
2/28/2006 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Racers improve to 22-6 overall and will face Jacksonville State at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn., in the semifinals of the 2006 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tournament on Friday night at 6 p.m.
The Racers put some distance between themselves and the Skyhawks early.
With the game tied 6-6, Darnell Hopkins hit back to back three pointers for a 12-6 advantage. A Justin Orr drive put the Racers up by nine with 13:10 in the half.
In the first nine minutes of the game, MSU was 6-13 from the field while UTM was 3-11 and after a basket by Jared Newson at the 17:35 mark, they didn't score another one until 11:18 on a putback by McKale Jones, the Racers were ahead 18-9.
The Skyhawks were in the game on the strength of their offensive rebounding with a 13-4 edge early in the game.
The Racers went ahead 32-13 with 2:15 before the half on a 12-0 run, with Issian Redding hitting two three pointers in the outburst and the Racers also getting baskets by Trey Pearson and a three from Hopkins.
The half ended with Shawn Witherspoon heaving a half court shot at the buzzer that was counted good when Cleve Woodfork was called for goaltending.
The Racers led 39-18 at the half, the 18 points by UTM was the second lowest scored by a MSU opponent this season just ahead of the 16 scored by Morehead State Dec. 10.
At the half, the Racers trailed in rebounding 25-16, but led in every other category. MSU shot 42 percent (11-16) from the field while UTM shot 22 percent (7-31). The Racers were 9-17 from three range (.529) while the Skyhawks were 1-9 (.111).
Darnell Hopkins led the way with 12 points at the half for MSU, hitting four of six three point attempts.
UT-martin put together a 13-3 run to start the second half and drew to within 11 points with 13:16 left on a free throw by Newson.
Tyler Holloway's three-pointer with 12:36 left kept the Racers ahead 46-32 with 12:55 left.
Both teams were in the bonus with 11:11 left in the contest.
UTM again trimmed the lead, this time down to 10 with 10:02 left on two free throws by Newson.
The Racers pushed the lead back to 15 when Hopkins scored a three point play with 5:32 left, and then hit a mid-range jumper on the next possession to push the lead back out to 55-40.
A three-pointer by Jeremy Kelly cut the UTM lead to nine at 61-52 with 37 seconds left, but that's as close as the Skyhawks would get, as the Racers hit 5-of-8 free throws from that time on to ice the victory.
For the Skyhawks (13-15), they were led by Newson, who scored 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Jeremy Kelly shook off a bad shooting night (4-for-18 from the field, 2-for-11 from three-point land) to still end up with 13 points and five steals.
The Racers placed three players in double-digit scoring, led by Hopkins' 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 4-of-7 from the three-point arc. Issian Redding scored 12 points, while Witherspoon scored 10 points, pulled down a co-team-high seven rebounds, and swiped five steals.
Those three Racers provided the offense. Senior center Pearson Griffith provided the defense.
The center who ranks eighth all-time in MSU history in blocks swatted away a career-high eight shots, and also pulled down seven rebounds, recorded one steal, and also altered several shots in the paint.
Racers head coach Mick Cronin was happy with his team's play in the first half, but was equally impressed with the Skyhawk's play in the second half.
"Tonight was a classic tale of two halves," Cronin said. "I really thought Tennessee-Martin came out in the second half and showed a lot of character, rallying the way they did. They held us to five field goals in our own building and that's a credit to (UTM) Coach (Bret) Campbell and his players."
"Fortunately for us, we were excellent in the first half. We had eight steals and 20 fast break points in the first half alone, and our first half defense was tremendous. We had 29 deflections at the half, and to give you an idea how many that is, we average 34 a game. We had great rotations, we were challenging every shot, and we were getting to the loose balls. We were able to score off our defense, and I was happy we were able to hold them to 52 points when they average 72 a game."
The Racers shot 34 percent overall from the field (16-for-47), while the Skyhawks shot 28.6 percent (18-for-63).
MSU Notes:
-MSU's 12 blocks was the Racers' best since setting a program record 15 on Dec. 10, 2005 against Morehead State.
-The Racers next game will be against Jacksonville State, a team they swept this season and Cronin has never lost to in four tries.
"Friday night we will be facing a team that has six seniors, all battling to not play their last game of their careers. We will have to show the same effort against them that UT-Martin showed against us tonight in the second half."
"Jacksonville State creates a lot of possessions by the way they play defense and offense. They do a good job of spreading you out, and they are very hard to defend. It will be a tough game for us because we will have to be able to put the ball in the basket. We must dominate the interior. We have more size and depth than them. But the key to the game is dominating the interior, because their guards (Walker Russell and B.J. Spencer) just play too well."
