Murray State University Athletics
Game 3 - MSU Hosts Avila Friday at RSEC
11/21/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Avila University
(3-2)
at
Murray State
(1-1)
Friday 7 p.m.
Regional Special
Events Center
Murray, Ky.
RADIO: WFGE (Froggy 103.7 FM), WNBS (1340 AM, Murray), Neal Bradley with the play-by-play - Listen Live through GoRacers.com
VIDEO STREAMING/TV REPLAY:
LIVE STATS: link on the Men's basketball schedule page on GoRacers.com
The Murray State Racers return to the Regional Special Events Center to face the Eagles of Avila University of Kansas City, Mo. The Racers are coming off an 87-63 loss Saturday at Western Kentucky. It was MSU's first loss of the season after starting with a season opening win Nov. 10 against Rider.
The Racers have back to back home games with Arkansas State coming in Monday for a 7 p.m. game before the Racers travel to Starkville and a Dec. 1 game at Mississippi State.
Avila University is an NAIA program that is well known to MSU assistant coach Isaac Chew who played there and coached at Avila from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2004 to 2006. The Eagles are coached by former Southeast Missouri State player Anthony "Butch" Hall.
The Racers are 26-5 at the RSEC since 2000 in non-conference games and have won three straight since losing to Southern Illinois in 2005.
GAME NOTES
MSU's start to the Ohio Valley Conference season is coming fast. They have games at home against Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State on Dec. 5th and 8th. The Racers were picked fourth in the OVC preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Austin Peay was the choice to win the regular season title with 19 first place votes, followed by Eastern Kentucky (one first place vote) and Tennessee Tech (two first place votes). The Racers were 2-4 against the trio last season. Southeast Missouri was selected 5th, with Tennessee State (6th), Samford (7th), Eastern Illinois (8th), Jacksonville State (9th), Morehead State (10th) and UT-Martin 11th. MSU will also travel to Jacksonville State and Samford before Christmas.
OVC RANKINGS:
See how the Racers rank in the OVC as a team and individually. (NCAA rankings beging Dec. 3.)TEAM
Scoring offense 64.5 8th
Scoring defense 76.0 7th Scoring margin -11.5 10th
Free Throw % 667 8th Field goal % 500 2nd
Field goal % def. .483 9th 3-Point % .389 2nd
3-Point % def. .538 11th
Rebounding off. 31.5 9th
Rebounding def. 23.5 1st
Rebounding mar. +8.0 2nd
Blocked shots 2.5 6th
Assists 11.0 10th
Steals 6.5 10th
Turnover margin -6.0 11th
Assist/turnover ratio 0.52 11th
Offensive rebounds 11.5 6th
Defensive rebounds 20.0 9th
3-Pointers made 7 10th
INDIVIDUAL
Scoring D. Thomas 16.0 7th
Rebounding D. Thomas 5.0 17th
Easley 5.0 17th
field goal % Holloway .727 1st
Easley .700 2nd
Assists Holloway 3.50 9th
Free throw % D. Thomas .875 12th
Steals None
3-Point % Holloway 1.000 1st
3-PT made Holloway 4 10th
Blocked shots Williams 1.0 6th
Ast/TO ratio Holloway 7.0 1st
Off. rebounds Easley 2.5 13th
Williams 2.5 13th
Def. rebounds D. Thomas 3.5 13th
Min. played Holloway 34.0 4th
D. Thomas 26.5 27th
AVILA REPORT:
The Eagles are an NAIA team from Kansas City, Mo. and are 3-2 after scoring a 72-44 home win Tuesday night over the University of Saint Mary. Avila placed three players in double figures, Martez Young scored 17, while Alex Marler added 10 as did Tavan Sills.Here are the results this season for Avila
11-06 Haskell H Won 84-83
11-09 Concordia A Lost 79-64
11-10 Northwest A Lost 99-79
11-17 Willam Woods H Won 93-85
11-20 Saint Mary H Won 72-44
DEFENSE SHINES:
MSU will again hang its collective hat on its defense. In 2006-07 the Racers led the OVC in defensive field goal percentage when they held opponents to .411 from the field and they were also first in three-point defense, opponents only managed to shoot .307.CRITICAL TIME:
The five minute mark of the second half has been key for the Racers. MSU is 15-3 when they have the lead with five minutes left over the last two seasons.WHAT A STREAK:
One story line in the 07-08 season will be Murray State's push to ensure another winning season. MSU currently has 20 straight years of winning hoops which is tied for fourth in the nation with Connecticut. The Racers share the same neighborhood with first place Syracuse (37 years), Oklahoma (27 years) and Kansas (24 years). MSU hasn't had a losing season since the 1986-87 campaign.IF THERE IS OT:
MSU hasn't had an overtime game yet this season, but played four last season going 2-2. MSU is 21-13 in overtime games since 1983 and were 2-2 last season. The Racers have played 11 overtime games in OVC play since 2000 and are 5-6.MSU's most famous overtime game came in 1990 against Michigan State in Knoxville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That game is still the only time a #16 seed has taken a #1 seed into overtime.
HOLLOWAY AND THE THREE:
The all-time career three point list will soon be making room for junior Tyler Holloway. He hit three three pointers against Western Kentucky and now has 99 for his MSU career. Holloway is ranked 10th among active OVC players. 11th place Aubrey Reese (97-00) has 105 and 10th place Aaron Page (96-00) has 107. Take a look at the all-time three point shooters at Murray State.1. Frank Allen 1989-93 251
2. Don Mann 1986-89 204
3. Justin Burdine 1998-02 198
4. Marcus Brown 1993-96 173
Paul King 1987-91 173
6. Chris Shumate 1999-04 170
7. Rick Jones 2002-04 133
8. Antoine Whelchel 2000-04 124
9. William Moore 1994-95 123
10. Aaron Page 1996-00 107
11. Aubrey Reese 1997-00 105
OVC VIDEO STREAMING:
OVC member institutions received great reviews in the first year of offering live streaming video. All OVC games and many out of conference games are again offered to fans and media with live video and home team announcers audio at www.ovcsports.tv.LIVE AUDIO:
All MSU games can be heard on the Racer Radio network and also on GoRacers.com. Neal Bradley handles the play by play with Josh Perigo and Nathan Higdon sharing analyst duties.HOME COOKIN:
The Racers are glad to be at home in the RSEC for back to back games with Avila and Arkansas State Monday night. With the Racers' win over Rider, they had now won 18 straight home openers and have fashioned quite a home court advantage at the RSEC. In its 10th season of games, MSU is 106-21 for a winning percentage of .834.WHISTLE HAPPY: Amazingly, the Racers were whistled for 29 fouls in their season opener against Rider. It was the second most fouls called on MSU in the 10 years of play in the RSEC. The most came in MSU's battle with Austin Peay in 2001 when the Racers were called for 32 fouls. The record for an opponent in the RSEC is 36 for Eastern Kentucky in 2003.
ASKA SIGNS WITH MSU:
6-7 Ivan Aska signed this week to join the Racers in 2008-09 as a freshman. Aska is a senior at Boyd Anderson High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He averaged 12 points and 11 rebounds per game last season as a junior.SANDERS EARNS OVC HONOR:
MSU junior Tarod Sanders was voted by the league's sports information directors as the OVC's Newcomer of the Week Nov. 12. Sanders came off the bench and supplied great defense and 10 points in the Racers' 66-65 win over Rider.SIMMONS JOINS TEAM:
Picasso Simmons of Gallatin, Tenn. has joined the MSU team as a walk-on student-athlete. He'll wear number 14.MILES JOINS MSU:
Guard Isaac Miles transferred to Murray State last summer after an outstanding freshman season at Creighton. He will sit out the 2007-08 season under NCAA transfer guidelines and be eligible to play as a sophomore in 2008-09. In his first season at Creighton in 2006-07 he averaged 6.1 points per game along with 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists and was selected as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference's All-Freshman team.THEY'RE BACK:
For only the sixth time since 1978, all 11 head coaches return in OVC men's basketball. The other years in which every coach returned were 1978-79, 1993-94, 1994-95, 2001-02 and 2004-05.
