Murray State University Athletics
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MSU Looks for OVC Success At Home Thursday Vs TSU
2/3/2010 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game 24
Tennessee State
4-19 (1-10 OVC)
at
Murray State
20-3 (11-0 OVC)
Thursday 7:30 p.m.
RSEC
Murray, Ky.
The Murray State Racers return home to the Regional Special Events Center Thursday when they host the Tennessee State Tigers in a 7:30 p.m. tip. The game finds MSU one of the hottest teams in college basketball with the nation's second-best winning streak at 11 and the 15th best home winning streak at 14. The Racers are coming off a Saturday 77-45 win at UT Martin which pushed MSU to its 23rd all-time 20-win season and the first for head coach Billy Kennedy at Murray State and his seventh in 25 seasons in the college game.
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The Racers enter the contest having moved up to seventh-place in the Mid-Major Top-25 poll and they're still ranked in the upper echelon in several statistical categories. MSU is second in the country in field goal percentage (.515) and fourth in steals per game (11.0) and scoring margin (+19.0). The Racers are also chasing history as they enter the game having won their last 18 Ohio Valley Conference regular season games. They've tied the fourth-longest streak in league history (WKU 1969-71) and are chasing the 25-game streak that WKU had between 1965-67.
The Racers are performing at a high level on both ends of the floor. In fact, out of the 31 NCAA D-I conferences, Murray State is one of only three teams leading their league in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
MSU senior Tony Easley enters the night one point away from getting to the 800-career mark. He already surpassed the 500-career mark in rebounding and has 534. Easley is having a rare season when it comes to blocking shots. Consider that he entered his final season at MSU with 63 career blocks and starts the TSU game with 60 for this season! Easley set another career high last Saturday with seven rejections against UTM and now has a chance to set the MSU all-time single season record held by Pearson Griffin with 79 in the 2005-06 season. Tony's 124 blocks has him up to fourth place on the MSU all-time list.
MSU's third all-time leading scorer Marcus Brown is set to be inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame Friday. His jersey no. 5 will be retired at halftime of the Racers' game Saturday against Austin Peay. Racer coach Steve Newton, Jenny Daag (golf), Don HeIne (football) and Stephanie Saleem (track) are also part of the class of 2010.
