Murray State
Tennessee State
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Racers Post 11th Straight OVC Home Win - 75-71 Over TSU
1/8/2009 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers were back at home for the first time in 40 days Thursday and came away with a 75-71 Ohio Valley Conference victory against
MSU also stretched their OVC home winning streak to 11 straight and their overall streak to six.
The win was one that the Racers had to hold off a determined opponent.
“TSU played well and it was not like they came in here with a lack of confidence,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “They were playing well and had just won two good OVC games.”
The Racer win came after a wild second half.
MSU started with a six-point lead, then after losing it, rallied to take a 52-48 lead with 10:04 remaining on back-to-back baskets by freshman Donte Poole and two driving lay ups by Isacc Miles.
TSU came back to tie the game 58-58 with 6:34 left, before the Racers pushed ahead by five on a Tyler Holloway three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Ivan Aska at the 4:47 mark.
Kevin Thomas scored a hoop and foul with 2:34 left. His free throw for the three-point play put MSU in front 68-62.
However, it wasn't going to be that easy for MSU.
TSU's Gerald Robinson scored a three-point play with 29 seconds left to cut the MSU lead to 72-71.
With the Racers leading 73-71 after a free throw by Miles, he made a steal with 4.1 seconds left and went to the line again and made one of two for a three-point lead.
TSU tried to get off a three-pointer for the tie, but MSU tipped the ball out of bounds with 0.1 left. TSU was out of timeouts but called one anyway which drew a technical foul. MSU's Jeffery McClain went to the line and hit one of two free throws for the final score of 75-71.
The Racers got the win, but continued to confuse from the free throw line. MSU was ranked 15th in the nation just Monday, but hit only 19-of-32 tonight for 59 percent. Isacc Miles, one of MSU's best free throw shooters at 76 percent made only 4-of-11 against TSU.
“That's just our whole team right now, not just Miles,” Kennedy said. “We're just struggling shooting the ball.”
“You just have to say, ?so what, we're going to win on defense,” Kennedy added. “Maybe that's going to be us (this season), winning ugly.”
As ugly as the win may have been, the Racers were glad to get it.
Miles and Ivan Aska paced the Racers each scoring 17 points, while Danero Thomas tossed in 14.
The Racers forced TSU into 19 turnovers, while giving the ball up only 10 times.
The first half was a back and forth affair with seven lead changes in the first eight minutes.
The Racers were down by seven when Tyler Holloway hit a three-pointer for make it a 20-18 TSU lead at 8:24.
MSU tied the game on a three-point play by Ivan Aska 23-23 at 4:41.
The MSU run went to 13-3 when Jeffery McClain scored in the lane for a 26-23 Racer lead at 3:22
The lead went to as many as six before the Racers settled for a four-point lead at the break 35-31 on a buzzer jumper by Danero Thomas.
GAME NOTES
One positive sign for the Racers in the first half was that they held their turnovers down to four, but forced TSU into 10 and turned them into 12 points.
The Racers are now 18-2 in the RSEC over the last two seasons and push their home winning streak to six straight. MSU's home OVC winning streak is now 11. They haven't lost at home since
MSU is 4-0 at the RSEC this season.
MSU's all-time record in their 11th season in the RSEC is 123-23 good for a winning percentage of 84.6.
The Racers lead the all-time series with TSU 38-15 and are 12-1 against the Tigers at the RSEC.
MSU played its first home game in 40 days, a span that covered eight road games.
Tyler Holloway was 2-of-3 from three-point range tonight giving him 169 for his career. He is one from catching Chris Shumate (1999-04) for sixth place on the MSU all-time list. He soon will catch Marcus Brown (1993-96) and Paul King (1987-91) who share fourth place with 173. Frank Allen (1989-93) is still MSU's all-time leader with 251.
The Racers are back at home Saturday for a 2 p.m. game against Austin Peay in what will be the 107th game in the series that started in 1941. The game will air nationally on ESPNU.
MSU leads the series 69-37 and 41-8 in
