Murray State
Rider
BracketBusters Bonus-MSU Defeats Rider 58-51
2/17/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers moved their mark to 3-0 in the ESPNU BracketBusters series when they scored a 58-51 victory Saturday over
MSU put together a 7-1 run to take the lead at 13-10 when Ed Horton drilled a three-pointer with 14:03 left in the half.
Rider responded with a 6-0 run and the Broncs had the lead 16-13 when Ryan Thompson finished a fast break at the 10:35 mark.
At the 9:40 mark, Tyler Holloway hit a three and the Racers had another lead at 19-18 with 9:40 left.
That was the Racers final lead of the half.
They trailed 29-23 when Thompson hit two free throws with 2:30 left in the half.
MSU still trailed by six with 20 seconds left and had three shots at the basket but could not score and trailed 33-27 at the break.
The Racers erased the deficit and built a lead at the start of the second half.
Danero Thomas finished a fast break before Shawn Witherspoon scored his first points on a three-pointer. Holloway scored on a drive to the basket and the Racers had a 34-33 lead.
MSU made it a six point lead when Thomas gathered a loose ball in the paint and scored an easy two, and Witherspoon drilled another three-pointer to put the Racers in front 43-37 with 13:13 remaining.
The Racers had to endure a painful scoring drought when they failed to score a field goal from the 8:32 mark to the 2:38 mark. Thomas stopped the drought when he hit a three-pointer for a 53-49 MSU lead.
After a Rider hit two free throws to cut the MSU lead to two, Marvin Williams scored an old fashion three-point play for a 56-51 Racer lead with 58 seconds remaining.
The MSU defense was excellent on a Rider squad that boasted a center that averaged 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds a game (Jason Thompson who scored 14 points and had 12 rebounds in the game), and some hot shooting guards. Rider was 0-7 from three-point range in the second half and managed only 18 points on 6-29 shooting for 20 percent. For the game, MSU held the Broncs to 28 percent from the field (15-54) and 14 percent from three-point range (3-21). Rider's tandem of Terrance Mouton and Harris Mansell were a combined 5-21 from the field and 2-12 from three-point range.
Danero Thomas ended the game with a career high 19 points on 7-14 shooting (2-5 from three-point range) and he also pulled down seven rebounds. Tyler Holloway added 10 and eight different Racers made the scoring column. Freshman Marvin Williams grabbed a team-best eight rebounds and scored nine points.
Williams and Thomas have made tremendous progress in their freshman seasons and tonight played a combined 54 minutes with 28 points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots. They were 10-19 from the field.
The win makes the Racers again over the .500 mark at 14-13 and they still have a chance to secure the 20th straight winning season for the program. MSU hasn't had a losing season since going 13-15 in 1986-87.
The Racers will fly from
GAME NOTES
The Racers are now 3-0 in the BracketBusters series. MSU won at Rice in 2005 and at home last season against Illinois-Chicago.
Shawn Witherspoon continues to move up the all-time scoring list at MSU. After scoring six tonight, he now has 1,036 points in his career. Witherspoon is in 31st place and two points behind 30th place Mike Coleman (1972-74) who has 1,038 points.
Today was the third time the Racers have played a team from
The Ohio Valley Conference was 3-8 today on ESPNU BracketBusters Saturday. UT-Martin and Tennessee Tech also scored wins at home. The Racers win was the only road win for the OVC.
