Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Mississippi
Racers Drop 77-61 Loss at Ole Miss
11/17/2010 12:46:19 PM | Men's Basketball
Boxscore
Boxscore (PDF)
The Murray State Racers dropped their first loss of the season in a 77-61 setback Wednesday to Mississippi at the Tad Smith Coliseum in Oxford, Miss.
The Racers (1-1) started the game in fine fashion and held a 12-6 lead with 10:16 before half, but saw Ole Miss come back to take the lead for good at 6:27 with a 15-14 lead. The Rebels (2-0) pushed it to a 34-23 lead at halftime.
MSU managed to cut the Rebels' lead to seven with 16:32 remaining, but never got any closer.
Ole Miss built as much as a 23-point lead at the 3:32 mark.
Foul trouble haunted the Racers from the start when their front-court, Jeffery McClain and Ivan Aska, picked up their third and second foul respectively early in the game.
“The foul trouble for Jeff and Ivan made us play our young guys and they were not ready for this kind of environment,” Racers Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “We had too many turnovers, some were unforced, but Ole Miss had a lot to do with it.”
Isaiah Canaan, returning to his home state, led MSU with 15 points, with most coming on the strength of 4-6 shooting from three-point range. Donte Poole came off the bench for a second straight game to score in double-figures with 12. McClain added 11 points and was 7-8 from the free throw line.
“I thought the first 10 to 11 minutes of the game we played well,” Kennedy added. “Ole Miss won the last five minutes of the half and that was difficult to overcome.”
The Racers limited Ole Miss to 27 percent shooting in the opening half, but the Rebels got going in the second half and hit 53 percent. MSU had trouble on the offensive end and ended the game at 30 percent.
MSU forced the Rebels into 17 turnovers, but gave it up 18 times.
MSU returns home to the CFSB Center Saturday for a 7 p.m. game with Reinhardt.
