Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Witherspoon Gets 1,000, But MSU Drops 64-62 Loss To EKU
2/8/2007 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Shawn Witherspoon's moment of joining the Murray State 1,000-Point Club was diminished Thursday when the Racers lost a 12-point second half lead in a 64-62 loss to Eastern Kentucky at home in the Regional Special Events Center. The setback ended the Racers four-game winning streak and dropped their record in the Ohio Valley Conference to 10-6 and 12-12 overall.
EKU started hot in hitting three straight three-pointers to grab a 12-6 lead.
MSU came back to tie the score at 12-12 with
The Racers trailed again by four before they had another nice run.
Dwayne Paul scored inside and drew a charge on the defensive end to give the ball back to
During their four-game win streak MSU had been holding opponents down with some air tight defense and at the end of this half they did the same to EKU. After Darnell Dialls scored with
The Racers ended the half on a 24-11 run when Carter hit a three at the first half buzzer for a 36-25 lead.
With
The Colonels would not go away and with
After a MSU timeout, the Racers turned the ball over and when Mascoll was driving in for an easy hoop, Ray George was whistled for an intentional foul. Mascoll made both free throws for a two point EKU lead with
Dwayne Paul's bid to tie the game with 1:30 left was met with a rejected shot, Jamaal Douglas scored with 36 seconds on the clock and EKU had a 60-56 lead.
Twice in the final seconds the Racers made lay ups and fouled EKU in hopes that they would get an opening on a missed free throw. However, Mike Rose hit four straight free throws to keep EKU in front 64-60 with 8.4 seconds left.
After an Ed Horton basket with 3.4 seconds left, EKU turned the ball over to the Racers with the same amount of time left when they tried a long inbounds pass that Dialls lost out of bounds. But faced with going the length of the floor in 3.4 seconds, the best the Racers could do was a shot from half court by Holloway at the buzzer that hit the backboard only.
The Racers dropped the game 64-62.
MSU was led by Bruce Carter with 19 points, while Witherspoon tossed in 14.
“In the locker room, we thought this was one of our worst games with the guys playing together,” Carter said. “We missed a lot of shots and missed a lot of lay-ups and we had a couple of bad defensive possessions. It hurts pretty bad ? after our four game winning streak, our confidence was getting higher and the team was connecting more. We just have to work it out before Saturday and get the win.”
The excitement of scoring his 1,000th point was dampened with the loss for Witherspoon.
“We just have to learn from this game. It's an eye-opener for us,” Witherspoon said. “We have to play at 100 percent every night, every game. We have to put this behind us. Tonight we'll think about it. Tomorrow we go back to practicing for Morehead.”
The Racers host the Morehead State Eagles Saturday at the RSEC at
MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy had a quick turn around before the Racers host the Eagles.
“We put it on cruise control in the second half and didn't finish around the basket, and we didn't get to the free throw line ? and when we did get there we didn't make them,” Kennedy said.
“Our guys need to learn to respect the game and play 40 minutes,” Kennedy added. “I've told our guys that at this point of the season ? the team that is excited to play, excited to practice, and play with a lot of energy wins.”
GAME NOTES
The win for
EKU also completed a regular season sweep of the Racers for the first time since the 1984-85 season.
MSU had another rough night at the start in the turnover department. 11 minutes into the game, MSU had eight turnovers. They only had four the rest of the game.
Shawn Witherspoon became the 33rd member of the MSU 1,000-Point Club when he scored on the baseline with
The Racers are now 104-18 all-time in the
