Tony Easley Scores Career-High 17 In Racer Battle At Mississippi State

Saturday, December 1

Starkville, Miss.

12 p.m.

Murray State

Mississippi State

Tony Easley Scores Career-High 17 In Racer Battle At Mississippi State

12/1/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

The Murray State Racers battled the Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday afternoon at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville and came away with a 78-61 loss. The Racers are 3-2 this season.

The Racers started the contest with a Tony Easley rebound and score to go along with a three point basket from Bruce Carter for a 7-5 Racer lead at the 17:00 mark.

Danero Thomas hit a jumper to keep the Racers in the game trailing 22-15, but the Bulldogs lead grew to 16 when Jamont Gordon scored on a drive to put Mississippi State ahead 33-17 with 4:14 left before half.

The Bulldogs lead was 18 when Danero Thomas hit a three from the corner at the first half buzzer to cut the Mississippi State lead to 39-24 at the half.

Thomas was 4-7 from the field and hit three three-point shots for a team leading nine points.

Murray State made a run at the start of the second half.

Thomas hit a three which was followed by another from Ray George and the Racers were down by 11, 45-34.

Moments later George made a steal and turned it into an easy slam dunk and the Racers were down by nine with 17:10 left in the game.

The Bulldogs pushed the lead back to 20 at 62-42 on a lay up by Riley Benock with 11:03 remaining.

The Racers never made another push and the Bulldogs won 78-61.

Tony Easley led the Racers with a career high 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. The MSU sophomore also pulled down a team high seven rebounds.

“Tony played well,” Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy said. “He battled and ran the floor really well, I liked his effort.”

Danero Thomas scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while Ray George added 11 on 5-of-11 shooting.

The Racers ended the game shooting 43 percent (27-of-62) from the field and 4-of-15 from three point range.

“We didn't attack the basket and we missed some open shots that we have to hit,” Kennedy added.

Charles Rhodes led Mississippi State with 22 points, while Jamont Gordon added 15.

Kennedy felt better about the Racers' play than he did a few weeks ago after MSU played at Western Kentucky.

“We felt like we did some good things,” Kennedy said. “We stayed in our offense because these games can get out of hand. We cut it to 10 then Gordon did anything he wanted.”

GAME NOTES

Murray State begins play in the Ohio Valley Conference Wednesday at home when the defending OVC Tournament champions, Eastern Kentucky comes to the Regional Special Events Center. The tip happens at 7 p.m.

The Racers are now 8-21 all-time against teams from the Southeastern Conference. MSU is 2-7 against Mississippi State. The Racers last win against an SEC team was on Christmas day in 1997 over Arkansas in Puerto Rico.