Murray State
Tennessee Tech
Racers Slam The Door On Tech 60-56 On Senior Night
2/23/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers sent their trio of seniors out in style Thursday when they outlasted Tennessee Tech 60-56 at the
MSU seniors Shawn Witherspoon, Dwayne Paul and Ed Horton played their final regular season home game and were big factors in the Racers victory. Horton led MSU with 16 points, while Witherspoon added 11 and Paul eight.
It was Horton who started a MSU run that helped build a nine point lead with
The lead provided enough cushion for the Racers to get the win.
Tech cut the MSU lead to two with
When the ball was thrown up, MSU was slow out of the gate falling behind 6-0 when Anthony Fisher of Tech scored a three-point play and a three-pointer at the
The Racers took their first lead of the half when they forced a turnover and Witherspoon was fouled going in for a lay up. His free throws gave MSU a 7-6 lead.
The rest of the half was a back and forth game with the Racers having no more than a three point lead and Tech only going up by two.
At the
Then the half ended with a bizarre finish.
Witherspoon scored under the goal with two seconds on the clock; Rivers took the inbounds pass and heaved a shot from the free throw line in the backcourt. Danero Thomas made contact with him and a foul was called. With .2 left, Rivers went to the line and made three free throws and Tech had a 26-24 lead at the break.
The Racers held on with some key plays down the stretch.
With the shot clock winding down, Witherspoon's attempted three-pointer hit nearly every part of the rim and fell through for a 57-52 lead with
With 29 seconds to go, Danero Thomas made a nifty steal at mid-court and scored an easy two for another five point MSU lead.
The MSU seniors combined for 35 of the Racers 60 points on senior night on 12-24 from the field.
Witherspoon also added 10 rebounds marking his 11th career double-double.
The statistic that jumped out when the game was finished was the fact that MSU outrebounded the Golden Eagles 45-31 and held them to a mere six offensive rebounds. In their first meeting Jan. 23, Tech whipped the Racers 43-32 in the rebounding stat.
GAME NOTES
The Racers are now 106-19 all-time in the RSEC and 7-2 against Tech in the building.
Witherspoon scored 11 tonight and now has 1,047 points and is the 30th all-time leading scorer in MSU history. Tonight he passed Mike Coleman (1972-74) and is now seven points behind Bennie Purcell (1948-52) who has 1,054 and is in 29th place. Purcell is the original first member of the club.
Witherspoon has now scored in 101 straight games and in 116 of his 119 career games.
The five minute mark of the second half has been a good indicator of a win or a loss. MSU had the lead tonight when the game passed five minutes and is now 13-3 in this situation. The Racers are 1-10 when they trail.
The Racers are now 15-13 and take a big step in securing their 20th straight winning season. MSU has not had a losing season since going 13-15 in the 1986-87 season.
The Racers end the regular season Saturday with a
