Racers Drop 76 Classic Third Place Game to Oklahoma State 66-49

Sunday, November 28

Anaheim, Calif.

5 p.m.

Murray State

Oklahoma State

Photo by: Ricky Bassman

Racers Drop 76 Classic Third Place Game to Oklahoma State 66-49

11/28/2010 5:30:57 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Murray State Racers lost the third place game of the 76 Classic Sunday with a 66-49 defeat to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Anaheim, Calif., at the Anaheim Convention Center.

After falling behind 10-0, the Racers (3-3) put together a 7-0 which included a three-pointer at the shot clock buzzer to make it a 10-7 game with 14:22 before half.

MSU took their first lead of the game at 9:12 when Jeffery McClain got a rebound and basket to give MSU a 16-14 lead.

When Isacc Miles hit a free throw at :58, the Racers had their biggest lead of four points before settling for a 23-21 lead at halftime.

The Racers again fell behind by 10 to start the second half, but rallied to cut it to 34-29 with 14:56 remaining on a steal and basket by Isaiah Canaan, but OSU (5-1), grew their lead again and made it a 47-35 lead at 10:10.

The Racers got as close as nine with 6:37 remaining but never got any closer.
MSU was led by Ivan Aska's 10 points, while Isacc Miles and B.J. Jenkins each tossed in nine.

Jeffery McClain led MSU with six rebounds.

The Racers were victims of the hot shooting of OSU guard Keiton Page who hit MSU with a career-high 29 points on 10-13 shooting, including 4-5 from three-point range.

“We played well in the first half but didn't execute defensively in the second,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “We have to give them (Oklahoma State) credit.

Once Page got hot and started hitting tough shots they really started to get going. We just aren't consistent enough to compete with them.”

For the season, the Racers are shooting 39 percent from the field (113-287).Billy Kennedy talked after the game of working toward better shooting.

“Our field goal percentage isn't good and we need to be able to balance everything,” Kennedy said. “We don't have a 20-point scorer every game so we have to be consistent. We have such a poor field goal percentage and we have to fix it.”

NOTES

2010 76 Classic All-Tournament Team
Chace Stanback, UNLV G/F 6-8 210 Jr. Los Angeles, Calif. (UCLA)
Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech G 6-3 190 Sr. Baltimore, Md. (Towson Catholic)
Marshall Moses, Oklahoma State F 6-7 255 Sr. Aiken, S.C./The Patterson School [N.C.]
Justin Hurtt, Tulsa G 6-4 201 Sr. Raytown, Mo. (Archbishop O'Hara H.S.)
Lenny Daniel, CS Northridge F 6-8 205 Sr. Richmond, Va. (Mt. Zion Prep/Coffeyville JC)

2010 Most Outstanding Player
Chace Stanback, UNLV G/F 6-8 210 Jr. Los Angeles, Calif. (UCLA

76 Classic Officials reported the total attendance for the three-day, 12-game tournament was 12,048

Here are the results from the 76 Classic
Sunday, November 28
Stanford 81, DePaul 74 (OT)
Tulsa 80, Cal State Northridge 63
Oklahoma State 66, Murray State 49
Championship Game - UNLV 71, Virginia Tech 59

Friday, November 26
Virginia Tech 56, Oklahoma State 51
Cal State Northridge 88, DePaul 66
UNLV 69, Murray State 55
Tulsa 65, Stanford 53

Thursday, November 25
Virginia Tech 72, Cal State Northridge 56
Oklahoma State 60, DePaul 56
Murray State 55, Stanford 52
UNLV 80, Tulsa 71

The meeting with OSU was the first for MSU and the 31st overall against teams from the Big-12 Conference. MSU is now 10-21 overall. Their last win against a Big-12 team was in 1998 when they won at Oklahoma.

The Racers' early season schedule has been strong indeed, as they have now faced teams from the Southeastern Conference (Ole Miss), Pac-10 (Stanford), Mountain West (UNLV) and Big-12 (Oklahoma State).

The Racers are scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to Nashville Monday and then will prepare for the opening of Ohio Valley Conference play when they make the trip to Eastern Kentucky on Thursday and Morehead State on Saturday.

Both games will be aired on the Racer TV network which is a free service to customers of NewWave Communications, Mediacom and Comcast cable systems.

Oklahoma State Coach Travis Ford whose family has a history with Murray State had these thoughts after the game with the Racers.

“It was a great win because we have so much respect for Murray State,” Ford said. ”I do personally, because my dad played at Murray, my mom cheered at Murray, my sister cheered at Murray, I grew up about an hour from Murray.”

“I always dreamed of playing at Murray to be honest with you, that's where I always wanted to play,” Ford Added.” I didn't talk to my team a whole lot about it. I got a lot of respect for the tradition of Murray State. For a team that has accomplished as much as that particular team has from the NCAA Tournament runs to everything that they have accomplished. They are a very experienced team, for us to get this win tonight is a good win for our team.”

Former MSU player Tommy Wade (1975-76), who was also part of Scott Edgar's first staff at Murray State in 1991-92, is the director of basketball operations at OSU.