Racers Defeat SIUE 71-46 For 24th Straight Home Win

Thursday, December 30

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

SIU Edwardsville

Photo by: Fred Mullane

12/30/2010 6:17:42 PM | Men's Basketball

Boxscore

Boxscore (PDF)

The Murray State Racers posted their fifth straight win Thursday in a 71-46 victory over SIU Edwardsville at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

Leading 31-26 at half, the Racers made sure of their 24^th straight win at home with a tremendous start to the second half.

The Racers (9-4) started the second half with a 9-0 run when they got a pair of free throws from Isaiah Canaan, a slam dunk from Ed Daniels followed by a three-pointer from B.J. Jenkins for a 40-26 lead with 17:20 remaining.

MSU pushed to a 19-point advantage when Jeffery McClain scored off a Daniel feed and B.J. Jenkins nailed his second three of the game for a 47-28 lead with 15:00 left.

MSU started the second half hitting 5-of-7 while limiting the Cougars to 1-of-7.

The biggest lead for MSU came with 6:11 remaining when the lead was 63-39.

In the rebounding battle, MSU held a 41-29 lead and held the Cougars (4-12) to 33 percent shooting for the game, while hitting 46 percent.

MSU nearly had two players reach a double-double with Ivan Aska scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds, while Jenkins added 12 points and seven rebounds.

Freshman Shawn Jackson made his biggest impact so far with 12 points in 14 minutes of floor time.

The first half saw MSU build an 11-point lead when Canaan made a great pass to Jackson leading to a fast break slam and a 19-8 lead at 11:55. SIUE closed the half with a buzzer three-pointer to close the gap to 31-26.

NOTES

The Racers moved their home winning streak to 24 at the CFSB Center dating back to their last loss to Louisiana Tech (Feb. 21, 2009). The streak is also the record win streak for the arena. The former record was set in the first 17 games at the CFSB Center from 1998-2000.

MSU's all-time mark at the CFSB Center is 151-26 (.857). Billy Kennedy's teams are 54-9 (.857) in his fifth season and 46-4 (.920) in the last four seasons.

Kennedy moved another step closer to two career milestones. He now has 93 wins at Murray State and 197 in his 13 seasons as a head coach which also includes stops at Centenary and Southeastern Louisiana.

Racers' senior B.J. Jenkins started the evening ranked fifth in NCAA D-I in free throw shooting. After hitting 1-of-2 tonight, Jenkins is 39-of-42 (.928) on the season. Villanova's Corey Stokes is the national leader at .968 at the beginning of play Thursday.

MSU got off to a great start shooting the ball when they hit their first five from the field and 7-of-12 in the first 10 minutes.

MSU leads the all-time series with SIUE 7-1. The Cougars, the newest member of the OVC, will play a full league schedule in the 2011-12 season.

The Racers now get ready for the return to Ohio Valley Conference play when they host Tennessee State (Jan. 6) and Austin Peay (Jan. 8). The game with the Govs will be aired by ESPNU at 11 a.m., while the TSU game is a 7:30 p.m. start.