Murray State University Athletics
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Racers Host Jacksonville State - 11 Game Home Streak On The Line
1/13/2010 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game 18
Jacksonville State
6-9 (2-3 OVC)
at
Murray State
14-3 (6-0 OVC)
Thursday 7:30 p.m.
RSEC
Murray, Ky.
The Murray State Racers are back at home in the Regional Special Events Center to host the Jacksonville State Gamecocks in a 7:30 p.m. game Thursday. MSU enters the game with a 6-0 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference, their best in league play since the 1998-99 season when they started 13-0. The Racers' 14-3 start also matches their best start since the 2003-04 squad did the same. MSU is coming off their 11th straight home win Monday when they put together a 51-point second half to defeat Eastern Illinois 75-59, the Racers' fifth-straight win. MSU got 21 points from Isacc Miles as they forced EIU into 20 turnovers.
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MSU's defense continues to be their calling card as they held another OVC opponent to less than 60 points. Only one OVC team has reached 60 against the Racers this season, that was Eastern Kentucky getting 60 Dec. 3, a game that MSU won by two points.
MSU held the Panthers to 38 percent shooting Monday night marking the fourth straight game and 11th this season in which the opponents shot less than 40 percent against the Racers.
As of Jan. 9, MSU was the only team in NCAA D-I currently leading their conference in overall games in these categories: scoring offense, scoring defense, field goal defense percentage and three-point defense percentage. St. Mary's (Calif.) leads the West Coast Conference in three of the stat lines.
The Racers lead the OVC in steals and are third in the nation with 11.2 per game. MSU has 11 games this season of 10 steals or more. The Racers had an OVC high this season of 14 steals against Eastern Kentucky.
Jacksonville State Junior Trenton Marshall was named the OVC Player of the Week after scoring 25 points per game as JSU split a pair of games with a 68-65 home win over Eastern Kentucky and a 78-71 loss to Morehead State. Marshall scored 37 points against Southeast Missouri State Jan. 4 which marked the highest scoring game for a JSU player in NCAA D-I. Marshall leads the OVC in scoring with 19.1 per game. The Gamecocks own a non-OVC win this season over Georgia Southern and also played a team the Racers defeated, Chattanooga. JSU lost at home to UTC 80-71 Dec. 1.
