MSU Drops 58-57 heartbreaker to APSU

Saturday, January 10

RSEC

2 p.m.

Murray State

Austin Peay

1/10/2009 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

The Murray State Racers saw their 11 game home Ohio Valley Conference winning streak snapped Saturday with a 58-57 loss to Austin Peay at the Regional Special Events Center in front of a national audience on ESPNU.

The Racers fell 7-8 overall and 2-3 in the OVC, while the Govs improved to 9-7 and 5-1.

The game came down to the last two possessions where one shot went in and the other rolled off.

APSU's Drake Reed scored in the lane with 10.4 seconds left for a Govs 58-57 lead, MSU called a timeout once they advanced the ball into the front court with 7.2 left.

Danero Thomas got off a jumper in the lane about five feet from the basket with three seconds left, but it bounced hard off the rim. MSU's Kevin Thomas grabbed the tipped rebound near mid-court, but was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer.

“Obviously we are very disappointed,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “It was a great game between two great teams in a big rivalry game, Drake Reed made a big shot and we missed ours.”

“Everything went like we wanted, we got a five footer, but just like our season so far we couldn't get it do go down.”

“Danero is an all-league player and he makes that shot most times,” Kennedy added. “If we hit that last shot everybody's celebrating.”

“I'm proud of our guys and they way they competed today,” Kennedy said. “Give Austin Peay credit.”

The game was indeed a classic match-up and featured 12 lead changes.

In the second half, MSU erased a four-point deficit when Tyler Holloway hit a three-pointer to get the tie at 47-47 at 8:37.

MSU was behind when they took the lead back with a steal from Donte Poole who knocked the ball away and fed Ivan Aska for a 53-52 MSU lead at 4:30.

Jeffery McClain was fouled in the lane and hit two free throws with 2:09 left for a 55-52 lead.

MSU held APSU scoreless from the 7:30 mark to the 1:57 mark until Marcel Williams scored to make it a 55-54 MSU lead.

The game was again a one point game after APSU's Reed hit a pair of free throws with 1:05 left to make it a 57-56 MSU lead.

After a Danero Thomas miss on a jumper with 30 seconds left, APSU saw Reed hit the shot that won the game.

The Racers were led by Isacc Miles who had 13 points, while Jeffery McClain added 12.

MSU was beaten on the boards 34-26, and gave up 32 Govs points in the paint.

The Racers did a great job in forcing APSU into 19 turnovers and turned those into 21 points.

MSU did get back to their good free throw shooting ways in making 13-of-14.

GAME NOTES

APSU's win at the RSEC was only their second in 10 tries and their first since 2003. APSU has only nine all-time wins in Murray since the series began in 1941.

The Racers home OVC winning streak was stopped at 11. MSU's last home loss before today was Dec. 6, 2007 to Eastern Kentucky 59-58. MSU's overall home win streak ended at seven straight as they lost for the first time since Indiana State did the trick last February.

The loss was only MSU's third at home in the last two seasons. MSU is now 123-24 (.836) all-time in their 11^th season at the RSEC.

MSU's good free throw shooting returned after a recent slump when they hit 13-of-14 today for 92 percent. MSU was 15^th in the nation when the Monday NCAA report was released.

The Racers scored their first 12 points of the day off of APSU turnovers.

After going 40 days without a home game, it was certainly welcome for the Racers to return home to the RSEC this week as they split games with Tennessee State (a 75-71 win Thursday) and a loss to APSU. MSU now has to hit the road again next week with a Thursday 7:30 p.m. game at Jacksonville State and next Saturday they play a 7 p.m. game at Tennessee Tech. The Racers return to the RSEC to host Eastern Illinois Jan. 22.

Tyler Holloway moved into a share of sixth place on the MSU all-time made three-pointers list with Chris Shumate (1999-04) at 170 when he hit one with 10:34 in the first half. He passed Shumate with 8:36 left in the game with number 171.

Holloway will catch fourth place Marcus Brown (1993-96) and Paul King (1987-91) with two more to get to 173.

Dave Weekly and Mark Adams did a great job on the game broadcast for ESPNU. They observed that the Racers and Govs are fixtures in OVC basketball. Proof of that is in the fact that for the last 21 years, one of the two teams has been in the OVC Tournament championship game. They've played each other in the title game five times; MSU has won four including the last time they met in 2004. The last time there was a title game without one of the two was in 1986 when Akron defeated Middle Tennessee 68-63....neither team is in the OVC now.