Murray State University Athletics
Holloway Hot-Edgar Returns as MSU Hosts SEMO
1/7/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SE Missouri St.
(5-11) (3-4 OVC)
At
Murray State
(7-8) (5-2 OVC)
Mon. Jan. 8, 2007
Murray, Ky.
RSEC
The Murray State Racers are back at home for the first time since Dec. 21 to face the Redhawks of Southeast Missouri State. The Racers have plenty of momentum after they found a way to erase a 19-point deficit Thursday in an 86-83 overtime victory at Tennessee State. Tyler Holloway tossed in a career high 29 points in the win, including 9-9 from the free throw line. Newcomer Ray George added 12 and hit the three-pointer that sent the game to overtime. MSU is now 2-1 this season when working overtime after losing Dec. 7 (72-66) at Eastern Kentucky and winning at home Dec. 19 (72-71) over Jacksonville State. Southeast Missouri State Head Coach Scott Edgar marks his return to MSU for the first time since he led the Racers from 1991-95. Edgar will forever be linked to the MSU tradition after he put up a record of 78-40 which included three OVC regular season titles and two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
The Redhawks come to Murray with a two-game win streak after they defeated Eastern Kentucky on the road (88-74) Jan. 2. SEMO's last time out was an (80-65) home win over Eastern Illinois. Brandon Foust leads the Redhawks with 11.3 points per game, David Johnson adds 10.6. Southeast suffered a six-game losing streak that included losses to Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State and Samford in OVC play. However, the Redhawks battled in each contest and lost those games by a margin of of only three points per game. SEMO has also played a tough non-conference schedule this season with games against Arkansas, Evansville, Iowa State and Purdue.
The Racers are 102-16 all-time in the RSEC for an amazing .864 winning percentage and they have a 43-7 mark in the last four seasons. The Redhawks have had more success than any other team at RSEC; They pulled off the upset twice in the 2005-06 season and have beaten the Racers here three times against seven losses. The only other teams that have more than one win in the RSEC are Southern Illinois (2) and Morehead State (2). The Racers have fashioned one of the best home-court advantages in college basketball. MSU has never lost three straight games at the RSEC and have never lost more than four games in one season here.
GAME NOTES:
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING:
The Racers did two things for the first time this season in their win at Tennessee State Thursday. The Racers won a game for the first time when trailing at the half, they were down 42-26. MSU also won a game for the first time this season when trailing with two-minutes left. MSU was down 65-64, but got off the mat and won the game in overtime.RESCUE FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT: MSU's win at TSU was one for the history books in that it's not every day to see a team come back to win after trailing by 18 points in the second half. The Racers most recent double-digit comeback was Feb. 18 last season when they trailed Illinois-Chicago by 11 with 17:56 left in the game.
BEST TWO-GAME SCORING: Tyler Holloway scored a career-best 29 last Thursday against Tennessee State and coupled with the 22 he threw in the game before that against Eastern Illinois, he has 51 points in two games. As good as those games are, there are other Racers who have had mind boggling back-to-back high scoring games. Most recently in 2002-2003, James Singleton had 65 points in a pair of games against Austin Peay and EIU, while Cuthbert Victor had 61 total points against Western Kentucky and Chicago State. But the top dog is Marcus Brown who scored 81 points in back-to-back games in 1995 against Washington (Mo.) and Louisville.
RARE BIRDS: It is a rare thing indeed these days in college basketball to see a player score 30 points in a single game. The trend in the OVC right now is for lower scoring games. The Racers haven't had a 30-point scorer since Shawn Witherspoon poured in 33 against Morehead State at the RSEC Jan. 6, 2005 a span of 61 games. Tyler Holloway came within one point of getting 30 last week at Tennessee State. Here are the top-10 single game scorers in MSU history.
45 Marcus Brown Wash. Univ. 1995
44 Herb McPherson MTSU 1966
42 Isaac Spencer Tenn. State 2001
42 #D.T. Mayes Arkansas 1997
39 Frank Allen Tenn. Tech 1992
39 Marcus Brown MTSU 1996
38 Frank Allen Western Ky. 1990
37 Popeye Jones SIU 1991.
37 D.T. Mayes UT-Martin 1998
37 Justin Burdine Eastern Ky. 2002
37 James Singleton Eastern Ill. 2003
# Puerto Rico Shootout
POWERFUL PAUL: Senior Dwayne Paul's blue collar work ethic is making the Racers better as he continues to find his place in the rotation. Against TSU, Paul scored his career-best at MSU with 11 points. He also added three rebounds.
MOTOR CITY MAN: Detroit native Bruce Carter is putting up some impressive numbers since coming out of a shooting slump about a month ago. In the last five games, Carter is scoring 18.4 points per contest and is shooting 48 percent from the floor. His 15 points against TSU pushed his streak of double-figure scoring to six consecutive games. Carter has also led MSU in rebounding in the last two games with seven each time.
ASSIST-TO RATIO: The Racers rank fifth in the OVC in this important category. In the last five games, the Racers are taking care of the ball extremely well and causing headaches for the opposition. In the last five games, MSU is plus-11 in turnovers.
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon's run to join the Murray State 1000-Point Club has been slowed because a foot injury. Currently he is 105 points away from the magic number. Witherspoon's string of 43 straight starts ended when he couldn't go against Samford Dec.21.
HOME COURT STREAK STOPPED: coming into the Samford game Dec. 21, the Racers had the nation's 11th longest home court winning streak at 15. After a 55-44 defeat, the Racers join these schools who have also had long home win streaks stopped this season:
Akron 21 Nevada 73-71
Iowa 20 Northern Iowa 57-55
Murray State 15 Samford 55-44
Western Ky. 14 Southern Ill. 75-70
Nevada 12 UNLV 59-49
OVC HOME STREAK STOPPED: The Racers also had an impressive OVC home regular season win streak of 14 straight stopped in the Samford loss. MSU hadn't lost an OVC home game in the regular season since Feb. 10, 2005 when Tennessee Tech beat the Racers 72-68.
BRACKETBUSTER CHANGES: The evolution of the ESPN BracketBusters event continues with the announcement of some changes. The event is being rebranded 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.
POPEYE COMING BACK: One of the all-time greats at Murray State, Popeye Jones, is coming back Jan. 19. Popeye will be inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame along with five others in the class of 2007. Popeye played at Murray State from 1989-1992 and still ranks as the racers best all-time rebounder and second all-time scorer. After his time in Murray, Popeye enjoyed a 10-year career in the NBA with Dallas, Toronto, Boston, Washington and Golden State.
OVC EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament is set for March 2-3 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn. The OVC has announced its "Early Bird Special" offering ticket discounts and free concessions. Check the front page of ovcsports.com for details. The special offer is good through Feb. 20.
OVC VIDEO STREAMING: OVC member institutions are receiving great reviews in the first year of offering live streaming video. All OVC games are being offered to fans and media with live video and home team announcers audio at www.ovcsports.tv.
