Racers Advance To OVC Tournament Championship Game

Friday, March 3

Nashville, Tenn.

6:00 p.m.

Murray State

Jacksonville State

3/3/2006 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

In the span of only a few seconds Trey Pearson gave the Racers new life in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semi-finals. It was Pearson's personal five-point play that started the Racers comeback from nine down in the second half and pushed MSU to the championship game with a 69-64 win over Jacksonville State at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The Racers make their 21^st appearance in Saturday's, 3 p.m., championship game. The Racers have won 12 tournament titles, the most of any team in the OVC.

The Racers revival began after they fell behind 53-44 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.

In the first 10 minutes MSU had no answer for the JSU trio of Walker Russell, Dorien Brown and Courtney Bradley who scored the first 25 points for JSU in the second half.

When Bradley scored inside and JSU had its biggest lead of the day 53-44 with 10:20 left.

Trey Pearson started the MSU comeback with a drive down the lane and a steal. As he was going into the basket, he made the hoop and was fouled by Tim Lewis. Pearson made the free throw and JSU's lead was 53-49 with 9:45 remaining.

JSU tried an alley-oop to Bradley. The pass was behind him and he grabbed the rim. The technical foul sent Holloway to the line where he made one of two to cut the lead to three.

MSU regained the lead with 7:13 left on a driving lay up by Justin Orr.

The Racers run went to 16-3 when Witherspoon nailed a three with 5:00 left and a 65-56 MSU lead.

Brown's three-point play with 2:28 left cut the MSU lead to 65-61.

Griffith's hoop and a JSU turnover with 1:50 left gave the Racers the ball and a 67-61 lead.

Not so fast, this one was far from over.

With 1:13 left JSU's Anthony Wilson hit a three to cut the MSU lead to 67-64.

JSU fouled Pearson Griffith with 1:05 left and he missed the front end of the bonus.

But before JSU could take a shot, Justin Orr made a steal, only to see the Racers throw the ball away on the inbounds pass coming out of a timeout.

Dorien Brown drove to the hoop but was called for a charge 46 seconds left giving the ball back to MSU.

Tyler Holloway drove the ball to the MSU hoop and under it and found Orr close but he missed the lay up and JSU had a third try to tie the game.

But they turned the ball over for the 21^st time in the game and when Orr made two free throws with 14 seconds left, the game was sealed.

MSU advances to the OVC title game with a 69-64 win.

The game from the start was very intense and entertaining.

The Racers turned up the heat after JSU's Harold Crow scored to give the Gamecocks an 8-7 lead with 14:48 in the half.

Over the next six possessions the Racers held JSU to no points that covered 6:16 on the clock.

During that time the Racers scored 10 points of their own.

Tyler Hollway hit his first attempt from three-point range, and Justin Orr scored in the paint for a 12-8 lead.

Keith Jenifer's free throw capped the 10-0 run to give MSU the lead 17-8 with 8:48 before half.

With 6:20 left Pearson Griffith scored inside and the Racers stayed in the lead 23-15.

JSU cut the lead to four with 3:41 left on a three pointer by Anthony Wilson, 25-21.

Coming out of a timeout, Russell took the ball from Jenifer and scored an easy two to make it a 25-23 game.

After two Holloway free throws, Russell nailed a three from the top of the key and JSU had come from nine down to cut the MSU lead to one with 2:06 left.

With 39 seconds left MSU's Holloway got tied up with Anthony Wilson on the rebound and Holloway was whistled for the foul. Wilson made both and the Gamecocks had the lead for the first time since the 14:48 mark of the half 28-27.

The JSU run was 11-2 and the Racers had not scored a basket since the 6:43 mark.

Griffith ended the drought with a hoop and foul with 18.7 left. He missed the free throw and the Racers went into the half ahead 29-28 after JSU could not get a shot off before the buzzer.

The Racers fell into a 44-39 hole in the first five-plus minutes of the second half when JSU put together a 16-10 run. After a MSU miss, Dorien Brown made the fast break lay up and was fouled by Orr with 14:10 left. Brown missed the free throw.

The Racers ended the half hitting 43 percent (12-28), while Jacksonville State shot 40 percent (10-25). JSU was 3-8 from three-point range while the Racers were 2-6.

MSU won the battle of the board in the half 19-15.

MSU Notes

MSU is in the title game for the 21^st time, they have won 12. The last OVC title for MSU was in 2004 when they were the number two seed and defeated Austin Peay 66-60.

MSU is 54-28 all-time in the OVC Tournament.

Mick Cronin is 68-23 in his third season coaching the Racers.

Witherspoon led the way for MSU with 14 points on 6-7 shooting from the field. Pearson Griffith added his own 14 and the Racers also got 12 from Justin Orr and 11 from Tyler Holloway.