Murray State University Athletics
MSU Hosts Tech - Honors Trio Of Seniors
2/21/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Tech
(18-11) (13-6 OVC
At
Murray State
(14-13) (11-7 OVC)
Thursday 7:30 p.m.
Murray. Ky.
RSEC
The Murray State Racers are at home for senior night with an important Ohio Valley Conference contest with the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at the Regional Special Events Center. The Racers are coming off a good win on the road in New Jersey last Saturday when they defeated the Rider Broncs 58-51 in the ESPNU BracketBusters series. The Racers are 11-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference after losing at home in overtime a week ago Wednesday 64-60 to Tennessee State. TTU is 13-6 and in an excellent position of second place in the league after scoring a one-point win Tuesday at home against OVC champion Austin Peay. A win for the Racers would go a long way in helping them secure a top-four finish in the league and a home game in next week's quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament. Today's game also marks the final regular season game for three Racer seniors; Shawn Witherspoon, Ed Horton and Dwayne Paul.
The MSU trio of seniors will be honored before today's game. Witherspoon has been a fixture in the MSU program since he started with a redshirt season in 2002-03. Since then Shawn has scored 1,036 points and is the 31st all-time leading scorer in MSU history. He has scored in 100 straight games and in 115 of his 118 career games.
Ed Horton and Dwayne Paul were a blessing for the Racers when they became available last summer when their former school Birmingham Southern announced plans to leave NCAA D-I and drop to D-III. Per NCAA rules the pair was free to transfer and play immediately. Horton has started 26 games and leads the Racers in steals and assists and has been a rock for MSU on defense.
Dwayne Paul has been a valuable part of the Racers plan this season and has appeared in 26 games. He has given the Racers toughness in the paint and he has been a leader on and off the floor.
Tennessee Tech is the hottest team in the OVC right now and come into the RSEC having won 11 of their last 14 games including a 63-52 win over Murray State in Cookeville Jan. 23. In league games, the Golden Eagles have three players leading the way with Belton Rivers scoring 17.1 points per game. Anthony Fisher scores 18.5 and Amadi McKenzie 15.5. Tech is ahead of its opponents by nearly 100 rebounds in OVC games. Tech is 6-2 all-time at the RSEC.GAME NOTES
TTU-MSU FIRST MEETING: The Racers battled gamely but lost a 63-52 game at Cookeville. The Racers jumped out to a 14-8 lead by playing some tight defense and getting some easy baskets off of steals. Ed Horton and Ray George both scored easy baskets for a six-point lead less than five minutes into the contest. The Golden Eagles took a brief lead with 25 seconds left in the half, but Bruce Carter's two free throws tied the game 28-28 at the break. MSU performed at a high level when it came to guarding TTU's excellent trio of scorers, Belton Rivers, Anthony Fisher and Amadi McKenzie. They rank as some of the top scorers in the OVC pumping in 49 points a game, but the Racers held them to a combined 6-23 from the field and 16 total points in the opening half. Tech opened the second half with a 6-0 run with all the points from McKenzie. MSU fell behind by as many as 12 with 12:06 left, MSU battled back to cut the lead to seven with 1:34 left on a Carter baseline drive but could not get any closer.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Racers have traveled approximately 8,800 miles to get to this point in the season. That includes a trip to California in November and games in Chicago, Knoxville, Birmingham, and Richmond, plus the ESPNU BracketBusters game last week in Lawrenceville, N.J. The Racers have logged more than 100 hours on a bus this season!
It has been a tough season for travel and that continued last Friday when the Racers were trying to get from Nashville, Tenn. to Philadelphia, Pa.. Shortly after arriving at the Nashville airport at 6 a.m., the Racers learned their 7:30 a.m. flight on US Air was cancelled. The rest of the day was a series of delays and waiting. The MSU travel party was eventually split up onto three different flights. Instead of a direct flight to Philly, the Racers had to connect through Charlotte, N.C. It was nearly midnight eastern time when the final group arrived at the MSU hotel in Lawrenceville, N.J. MSU didn't let the long day bother them and managed to get out of town with a 58-51 win.
BRACKETBUSTERS REVIEW: The Racers win at Rider gave them a 3-0 mark in their history of playing in the ESPNU event. In 2005, MSU defeated Rice in Houston, Texas and in 2006 slipped past Illinois-Chicago in Murray. The Rider Broncs will return the game to the RSEC next season. Tennessee Tech posted one of the OVC's three wins Saturday when they held off Northwestern State at home in overtime 85-84.
SHUFFLE THE DECK: With 11 new players, you can imagine the combinations of starting lineups that Billy Kennedy tried early in the season. Coach Kennedy used 10 different starting lineups in the first 14 games.
WINNING SEASON STREAK: The Racers are trying to extend the program's string of winning seasons to 20 in a row. MSU hasn't had a losing season since going 13-15 in 1986-87.
CRITICAL TIME: Watch for the five minute mark of the second half, because it has been a key moment on if the Racers are on the winning end or not. When MSU has the lead with five minutes left they are 12-3, and 1-10 when they trail.
As with any team that has 11 new players and a new coach there are going to be growing pains. MSU has known the pain of losing four games after they had double-digit second half leads this season.
WORKING OVERTIME: For the first time since the 1989-90 season, the Racers have played in four overtime games in a single season. Feb. 14 the Racers had a lead late with Tennessee State, and even had the last shot in regulation but couldn't avoid extra time. MSU is now 21-13 in overtime games since 1983 and are 2-2 this season with wins over Jacksonville State and Tennessee State and losses to TSU and Eastern Kentucky. Records have been kept since 1983 and MSU has never played five overtime games in a single season. Speaking of the 89-90 season, the Racers were 2-2. They lost in triple overtime to Southern Illinois and also in overtime to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament first round in Knoxville, Tenn when MSU nearly became the first 16-seed to upset a 1-seed. MSU had overtime wins that season over Texas-San Antonio and Tennessee State. The Racers have played 11 overtime games in OVC play since 2000 and are 5-6.
FRESHMEN FORM: Marvin Williams and Danero Thomas hilight a freshmen class for the Racers and have shown great improvement through 27 games. Williams is playing 14.0 mpg, while Thomas is on the floor an average of 15.4 minutes per game. Together they are adding 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game to the MSU attack. In the Rider game, Thomas and Williams both made the start. Thomas scored a career high 19 points and Williams grabbed a career best eight rebounds. Thomas started slow in shooting the ball but has improved a bunch in the last month. In the last eight games he is shooting 51 percent (19-37).
SPOON WATCH: Shawn Witherspoon joined the Murray State 1000-Point Club by scoring 14 points in the EKU Feb. 8.
He had six points against Rider and has taken over the 31st spot on the MSU all-time scoring list with 1,036 points. He trails 30th place Mike Coleman (1972-74) who has 1,038 points. Witherspoon has a chance to catch Bennie Purcell who is in 29th position with 1,054.
Witherspoon has enjoyed a career at MSU that will be remembered not by the numbers he has accumulated but by the leadership he has shown.
Here are some of his accomplishments:
He has scored in 100 straight games. The last time he failed to score was Jan. 26, 2004 during his freshman season. Witherspoon has scored in 115 of his 118 games as a Racer.
Has turned in 29 games of 14 points or more.
His career best scoring game came during his sophomore season Jan. 6, 2005 at home against Morehead State when he pumped in 33 points.
Witherspoon has seven career double-doubles and nine career games of 10 rebounds or more.
He has has started in 56 of the last 58 games.
As a freshman in 2003-04, he was part of the MSU team that won its first eight games in route to a 28-6 season and won the OVC Tournament marking MSU's 12th trip to the NCAA Tournament where they played and lost a first round game in Columbus, Ohio against Final Four team Illinois.
As a junior in 2005-06, he was part of the MSU team that went 24-7, won the program's 20th OVC regular season title and 13th OVC Tournament title. In the NCAA Tournament first round in Dayton, Ohio...the Racers took defending champion North Carolina to the wire before losing 69-65. Witherspoon was playing a brilliant game with five points and four rebounds when he broke a bone in his foot eight minutes into the first half.
Witherspoon has helped the Racers to a 52-18 record (.742) in the OVC during his time here. The Racers are also 45-11 record (.803) at the Regional Special Events Center during his time as a Racer.
