Murray State
Tennessee Tech
Six Straight Wins - MSU Takes Down TTU 81-67
1/25/2008 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers used a pair of 21-point performances from Bruce Carter and Tyler Holloway to score an 81-67 win over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles Thursday at the
The win was the sixth straight for MSU, the longest streak in the 10 years Billy Kennedy has been a head coach.
“I don't keep track of those kind of things,” Kennedy said. “But I'm very thankful our guys are buying into how I want to play.”
The Racers who entered the game leading the OVC in field goal and three-point percentage on offense and defense, out-rebounded TTU 39-28 in the game.
“We're playing hard on the defensive end and creating opportunities in transition.” Kennedy added. “I like that we're being unselfish and we have contributions from the bench."
Indeed, the MSU bench outscored the Tech bench 19-4.
With the game tied at seven, the Racers had a 16-4 run that included two steals and easy baskets by Tony Easley and Bruce Carter. On three straight possessions, Tech pressed the Racers and MSU responded with a three from Danero Thomas, and a lay up, plus an alley oop dunk by Marvin Williams from Ray George. The MSU lead was 23-11 at the 11:25 mark.
The Racers lead grew to 16 before they went to the half with a 42-31 advantage.
In the second half, TTU cut the MSU lead to 11 with 18:47 remaining but never got any closer in the 81-67 final.
Carter earned his 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, with one three-pointer in four tries; he was 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Holloway was 7-of-14 and 3-of-5 from three-point range and hit 4-of-4 from the line.
Danero Thomas added 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
MSU continues to get great production from their bench. Marvin Williams pulled down eight rebounds, while Ray George added five assists. Tarod Sanders had four rebounds.
"I'm real proud of our team,” Kennedy said. “Defensively, we had great effort, especially in the first half and we had stretches in the second half where our defense led to easy baskets.”
“That was a big win tonight,” Kennedy added. “We beat a hot team."
GAME NOTES
The Racers six-game winning streak is being fueled by limiting turnovers and getting assists. MSU has more assists than turnovers in six straight games as the wins have accumulated. The last time MSU had more turnovers than assists, they lost to
Tonight was the 157th meeting between the Racers and Golden Eagles. The series is the oldest the Racers play. MSU now leads the series 113-44. MSU leads 66-8 when playing in
The Racers moved their record in 10 seasons of basketball in the RSEC to 113-22 (.837). MSU is 36-8 (.818) against OVC opponents.
MSU's home winning streak is now five straight.
Holloway and Carter scored 20 or more points in the same game for the second time. They did it last year against
Carter was only one rebound shy of a double-double.
Carter has eight straight games in double-figure scoring and eight straight with a three-point basket.
Marvin Williams has five straight games with at least five rebounds and he's coming off the bench.
Kevin Thomas has a streak of 17 straight games with an assist.
Tyler Holloway was 3-of-5 from three-point range, has 131 in his MSU career, and is in 8th place. Rick Jones (2002-04) is in 7th place at 133. Chris Shumate (1999-04) is in 6th position at 170.
The Racers have finished the first round in the OVC having played everyone one time.
The Racers are 15-5 in the Kennedy era when leading at the five-minute mark of the second half and 24-2 when leading at the two-minute mark.
Saturday's 2 p.m. game at the RSEC against
