MSU Wins Overtime Thriller At TSU

Thursday, January 4

Nashville, Tenn.

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Tennessee State

1/4/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

The Murray State Racers turned in an incredible win Thursday in Nashville when they erased a 19-point deficit and came back to defeat the Tennessee State Tigers at the Gentry Complex 86-83. The victory is the Racers fourth in their last six games and improved their Ohio Valley Conference record to 5-2 and 7-8 overall.

The Racers started off with a 10-7 lead after freshman George Fotso scored in the paint with 13:41 to go in the opening half.

Murray State fell behind by 10 points when Tennessee State's Clarence Matthews hit a long three-pointer.

The half ended with TSU putting together a 9-3 run to end the half with a 42-26 lead.

The Racers shot 41 percent from the floor in the opening half (10-14) while the Tigers shot 45 percent (15-33).

Murray State trailed at the half in rebounding 22-14.

The Racers certainly made adjustments in the locker room and applied them when the second half began.

MSU cut the TSU lead to six with a 14-2 run. It started with Rob Kennedy scoring inside, and was followed by a three-pointer from Shawn Witherspoon, his first field goal of the game with 18:20 left.

Bruce Carter scored to cut the lead to 11 moments later and then Tyler Holloway hit two contested three-pointers to make it a 46-40 game with 15:45 left.

The Racers continued to get closer when Ray George scored and was fouled; his free throw made it a three point TSU lead. Carter then went coast-to-coast and hit a three-pointer to get the Racers to within two points 50-48 with 11:51 remaining.

The Racers took their first lead since it was 10-7 in the first half when George hit a short jumper for a 59-58 MSU lead with 7:34 left. MSU pushed out to a four point lead on another Holloway bomb and it was 62-58 Racers with 6:23 remaining.

TSU nudged ahead by one when Matthews hit a pair of free throws with 3:19 on the clock.

MSU was down four when Holloway was fouled while taking a three-pointer with 34.2 remaining. Holloway calmly sank all three free throws and the TSU lead was 68-67.

MSU pressed on the inbounds pass and got exactly what it wanted...a steal by Ed Horton. He missed on a short shot that was rebounded by Bruce Carter who was fouled on his attempted put-back. Carter missed both free throws and TSU had possession when the ball went out of bounds last, touched by the Racers. TSU's Belton got a run-out dunk on the inbounds play and the Tigers had a 70-67 lead with 13.5 left. After MSU called a timeout, Ray George drilled a three-pointer to tie the game with four seconds left.

The Tigers made a good play to get the ball under their basket, but Larry Turner missed at the buzzer and the Racers were headed for overtime for the third time this season.

Murray State was down by three in the overtime when Witherspoon tied it with a three from the corner, it was 74-74 with 2:55 remaining.

Dwayne Paul scored after a TSU miss and the Racers again had a lead, this time with 2:07 left 76-74.

TSU's Belton missed a three and Paul grabbed the rebound. Holloway drilled a straight-away three with 1:07 left and the Racers lead was five with 45 seconds left.

Belton kept the Racers from cruising however when he hit two three-pointers in the final seconds...his second made it an 82-80 MSU lead with 20 seconds to go.

Holloway and Horton hit free throws in the final 16 seconds to seal the victory.

Holloway ended the game with a career high 29 points on 8-11 shooting including 4-6 from three-point range. He also hit all nine of his free throws.

Bruce Carter added 15, and Ray George, who only joined the team a few weeks ago turned in his best game as a Racer with 12 points on 4-9 shooting and his three-pointer late in regulation was the shot that forced overtime.

GAME NOTES:

MSU is 2-1 in overtime games this season after losing at Eastern Kentucky Dec. 7 72-66 and winning at home 72-71 against Jacksonville State Dec. 19. MSU also played three overtime games last season and in 1992-93. MSU played four overtime games in 1989-90.

Shawn Witherspoon's run to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club has been slowed because a foot injury. He scored seven points tonight and is now 105 points from the magic number.

The Racers are 36-12 all-time now against Tennessee State and have won their last two in Nashville at the Gentry Center. MSU will host TSU on Feb. 14.

MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy wins his first meeting against TSU, while Tigers Head Coach Cy Alexander is 1-8 against the Racers.

The Racers received some news about this season's ESPN BracketBusters event. The event is being renamed as the "ESPNU BracketBusters", which will give more attention to the network's new venture ESPNU. The OVC already has several games scheduled for EPSNU this season. ESPNU also announced there will be a one-hour selection show for the BracketBuster airing on ESPNU Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. central time.

The Racers are slated for a road game in the event this season. MSU has played two BracketBuster games and have won both; In 2005 they defeated Rice in Houston, Texas 69-63 and last season defeated Illinois-Chicago at home 72-68. The Racers have split the return games with a 83-65 home win over Rice, and a 74-68 loss at UIC this season.