Racers Outlast WKU 69-60 - Canaan Nets 19 Points - Murray State University Athletics

Saturday, December 18

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Western Kentucky

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Racers Outlast WKU 69-60 - Canaan Nets 19 Points

12/18/2010 11:52:25 PM | Men's Basketball

Boxscore

Boxscore (PDF)

The Murray State Racers hammered out their third straight win in a 69-60 win over Western Kentucky in front of 5,667 fans at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

The game turned on some timely defense and the shooting of Isaiah Canaan in the second half.

With MSU leading 32-30 at the break, they fell behind by one when WKU's Sergio Kerusch hit a three-pointer, but it would be the last time the Racers would trail.

MSU jumped to a 51-42 lead on Canaan's third straight three-pointer from the right corner with 11:46 remaining, it was followed by a bucket off a tipped pass by Jeffery McClain and the Racers had an 11-point lead.

After WKU cut the lead to seven, Canaan hit his fourth three from the corner for a 56-46 lead with 7:27 left.

MSU led by 11 again when Isacc Miles scored on a long pass from McClain and it was 64-53 with 3:35 left.

WKU never any closer than five points the rest of the way as MSU claimed their 23^rd straight home win, which is the fourth-best streak in the nation.

“We didn't turn the ball over and when you don't turn it over good things can happen,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “I thought we played pretty well the first 10 minutes. It was 21-11, but then we had some bad offensive possessions. Glad to get the win, but if we had made our free throws down the stretch, it would've made it a lot easier on the coach (himself).”

Canaan led all scorers with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from long range.

“He's a very good shooter, we ran two plays for him on out-of-bounds plays coming out of timeouts and he hit the shots and that looks great when you do that,” Kennedy said. “He was open and he knocked them down.”

Isacc Miles tossed in 10 points and B.J. Jenkins had 10 assists to lead the MSU attack.

MSU won the rebound battle 30-27 and had a season-low seven turnovers while forcing the Hilltoppers into 17 of their own.

Defensively, MSU held WKU's Steffphon Pettigrew to four points and slowed down leading scorer Juan Pattillo with 11. Kerusch led WKU with 15.

NOTES

MSU has now won 7-of-8 meetings with WKU in Murray, Ky., since the Hilltoppers left the OVC in 1982. MSU's only loss came in 2004.

The Racers now have a 23-game winning streak in the CFSB Center, the fourth-best streak in the nation tied with Kentucky who beat Mississippi Valley State tonight. Kansas beat USC and leads the nation with 66 straight, Xavier beat Wake Forest and has won 29 in a row. Duke plays Elon on Monday looking for their 26^th in a row.

MSU has now won 46 straight games when carrying the lead inside the five-minute mark of the second half.

B.J. Jenkins had 10 assists marking the first such game for the Racers since last season when Isacc Miles had 11 against Tennessee State (March 2, 2010). The MSU record is held by Chad Townsend who had 16 assists against Eastern Illinois in 1997.

The Racers get back to Ohio Valley Conference action Tuesday when they play at UT Martin. The game will be aired on the Racer TV Network which is available to subscribers of NewWave Communications, Mediacom and Comcast.

MSU is back at home Dec. 30 for a women's-men's double-header with SIU Edwardsville.