Murray State
Louisiana Tech
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MSU Drops 69-60 Loss To La. Tech On BracketBusters Saturday
2/21/2009 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers dropped a 69-60 game to visiting Louisiana Tech Saturday in the ESPNU BracketBusters series at the
The Racers were down by their largest margin of the day with 13:59 left at 47-42 when they got back in the game.
Ivan Aska scored on a jumper, before Tony Easley started a fast break with a blocked shot which led to a three-pointer by Isacc Miles to make it a 47-47 game with 11:02 remaining.
Again MSU fell behind, this time by six with 7:30 left at 55-49, but made another run.
The Racers cut the lead to 57-55 at 5:37 on a pair of Holloway free throws but were unable to get any closer the rest of the way.
“We got beat by a better team today,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “They were more physical than us, they got to the line 29 times and we only had 13, and they had 41 points in the paint...give them credit, they played well.”
MSU is now 3-2 all-time in the ESPNU series.
At the start of the game, the Racers trailed early 7-6, but roared back for a 20-12 lead at 10:21. Ivan Aska came off the MSU bench to provide two baskets and Isacc Miles hit a three-pointer in the 14-5 run for the Racers.
MSU led by eight points again 28-20 at 5:22, but Tech came back to tie the game at 28-28 with 1:19 left.
The Racers trailed 33-32 when Tech's Magnum Rolle hit a three-pointer just before the buzzer.
Tony Easley led MSU with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Isacc Miles and Tyler Holloway each added 14 for MSU. Ivan Aska scored 13.
Tech's Magnum Rolle led the Bulldogs with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
The Racers won the rebound battle 37-29 including a 15-9 edge on the offensive glass.
MSU was 22-of-56 from the field for 39 percent, while Tech was 22-of-47 for 46 percent. MSU was 7-of-18 from three-point range for 39 percent, Tech was 5-of-9 for 47 percent.
GAME NOTES
The Racers are 17-19 all-time against teams from the Western Athletic Conference and 2-4 against Louisiana Tech. MSU will make a return game trip to
Tyler Holloway moved into second place on the MSU all-time list for made three-point baskets when he hit one at the 16:33 mark of the opening half. Holloway passed Justin Burdine (1998-02) who is third place with 198 and hit four for the day to move his total to 202.
Tony Easley scored his fourth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds. It was the sixth double-double of the season for the Racers and the fifth for Easley.
After beating Rice (2005), Illinois-Chicago (2006), and Rider (2007), the Racers have lost their last two games in the EPSNU series. Last season MSU lost to
The Racers have a quick turn around for a very busy final week to their regular season. Monday MSU hosts UT Martin at the RSEC at 7:30 p.m. in a make-up date from their postponed game Jan. 31 because of the ice storm.
