Senior Day To Remember- MSU 70-65 In OT Over EKU

Saturday, February 28

RSEC

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Kentucky

3/1/2009 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

The Murray State Racers defeated the Eastern Kentucky Colonels 70-65 in overtime Saturday at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky. putting a cap on the regular season with their seventh straight league win, made sweeter as three team members were honored on Senior Day.

Tyler Holloway, Kevin Thomas, and Jarad Key suited up for their final regular season home game, one that they'll never forget.

Kevin Thomas hit a game-tying three-pointer with 26.9 seconds remaining to force overtime, and Isacc Miles hit a pair of free throws with 2:30 left in the extra time to give the Racers the win.

MSU finishes the regular season 18-11 and tied for second place in the OVC with Austin Peay at 13-5. EKU fell to 18-12 and finished fifth in the league at 10-8.

“I've said it many times lately, but this was a hard-fought game,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “We didn't always make the best decisions tonight, but our toughness made up for it. We are fortunate to beat EKU because they played very well.”

MSU goes into next week's OVC Tournament as the third seed and hosts sixth seed Tennessee State at the RSEC Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

MSU won for the 10th time in their last 11 league games, but this one was a tough task.

The Racers trailed by seven at the start of the final half, but came back with a 15-6 run when Danero Thomas scored a three-point play, followed by a long three-pointer by Tyler Holloway for MSU's first lead of the second half 44-42 with 11:56 remaining.

After EKU went back in front by five, MSU rallied again to cut the Colonels lead to 58-56 with 3:06 left on a pair of free throws by Kevin Thomas.

MSU was still down by three under a minute left when they worked the ball to Kevin Thomas with 26.9 remaining and he calmly drilled a three from the top of the key to tie the game at 61-61.

EKU's Mike Rose missed a contested three at the buzzer and the game headed to overtime

MSU scored first when Ivan Aska hit a shot in the paint for a 63-61 lead at 3:41.

The Racers pushed their lead to 67-63 with 42.7 left on two more free throws by Kevin Thomas. This came after Jeffery McClain made an incredible save of a ball going out of bounds just before.

EKU missed a shot in the paint and the Racers had the ball back with 29 seconds to go.

However, things got sticky again when McClain missed two free throws and EKU's Justin Stommes scored to make it a two point game with 18.1 left.

Miles went to the line with 17.4 left and hit both for a 69-65 MSU lead.

After an EKU miss, Aska hit one of two at the line for the final of 70-65.

Kennedy wasn't surprised at the big shot by Kevin Thomas.

“We work on that shot every day in practice because he's good at that shot from the top of the key,” Kennedy said. “We wanted the best shot available and we knew that was probably going to be a three. Kevin wanted the ball.”

Miles led MSU with 18 points and six assists, while Aska scored 16 off the bench along with six rebounds. Kevin Thomas added 13. Danero Thomas led the team with eight rebounds and scored nine points.

The Racers made a difference at the free throw line where they hit 77 percent on 20-of-26 shots. MSU hit 11-of-13 in the final three minutes of regulation and overtime.

GAME NOTES

For the first time in 11 tries this season, the Racers won a game in which they trailed at the five-minute mark of the second half and only the second in 30 such situations over the last three seasons.

The Racers have now won six straight Senior Day games since last losing in 2002 to Morehead State.

MSU is now 130-25 (.838) in their 11^th season in the RSEC and 92-15 (.859) in OVC play.

The Racers lead the all-time series with EKU 89-59 and are 49-21 in Murray, Ky.

MSU ended the OVC schedule 13-5 by winning their last seven and 10 of 11. MSU finished in a tie for second with Austin Peay. UT Martin finished 14-4 and won their first title.

MSU's overtime win was their first at the RSEC since beating Eastern Kentucky 80-78 Jan. 8, 2004 and their first OT win since winning at Tennessee State Jan. 4, 2007. MSU breaks a three-game losing streak in overtime games and have won five of the last 10.

MSU faces Tennessee State at home in the OVC Tournament quarterfinals Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the RSEC. MSU won both meetings with the Tigers this season: Jan. 8 by a 75-71 score at the RSEC, and 88-58 on Feb. 4 in Nashville, Tenn.

The Racers and Tigers have split the six games they've played in the OVC Tournament.

1993 Lexington Final Lost 68-82

1994 Nashville Final Lost 72-73

1997 Murray Quarter Won 76-63

2000 Murray Quarter Won 83-58

2001 Murray Quarter Won 114-100

2008 Nashville Semi Lost 75-83

The Racers have hosted a quarterfinal game every season (13 straight) since the OVC went to campus sites in 1997.

MSU has won the OVC Tournament a league-best 13 times, the last in 2006.

MSU has won more games in the OVC Tournament than any other school going 56-30.

Here are the Tuesday pairings.

Upper bracket

(8) Tennessee Tech at (1) UT Martin

(5) Eastern Kentucky at (4) Morehead State

Lower bracket

(6) Tennessee State at (3) Murray State

(7) Eastern Illinois at (2) Austin Peay

The winners advance to the semi finals Friday at the Sommet Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The OVC Tournament semi finals have featured Murray State or Austin Peay in 23 straight years. The last time one of these two titans wasn't in the semi finals was in 1985 when Middle Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, Youngstown State, and Eastern Kentucky played. One of the two has played in the championship game in 22 straight years dating back to 1986 when Akron beat Middle Tennessee.

The two have met five times in the finals (MSU has won four) but this time the only place they can meet is in the semi finals where APSU has won three of five meetings. First, the Racers have to get past the Tigers and Austin Peay has to handle Eastern Illinois.