Racers Falter Late - Drop 61-60 Loss To EIU - Murray State University Athletics

Thursday, January 20

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Illinois

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Racers Falter Late - Drop 61-60 Loss To EIU

1/21/2011 12:03:50 AM | Men's Basketball

Boxscore

Boxscore (PDF)

OVC Standings

The Murray State Racers dropped a 61-60 loss to Eastern Illinois Thursday in Murray, Ky., and suffered a back-to-back home loss for only the fifth time in 13 seasons of basketball in the CFSB Center.

MSU trailed by four with 1:47 remaining when Jeffery McClain made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to two.

After an EIU miss, B.J. Jenkins sank two free throws for a 57-57 tie with 1:26 remaining.

MSU, who scored their final field goal of the game with 10:17 left, took the lead from the line with 24.4 left on two free throws from Isacc Miles.

The Panthers ran the clock down for Jeremy Granger who hit a shot in the lane for a 61-60 lead with 3.9 second left.

Miles tried a long three-pointer in traffic just inside the mid-court line which fell short and the Racers suffered a 61-60 defeat and dropped to 12-6 overall and 5-3 in league play.

MSU had a hard night from the free throw line making 18-32 for 56 percent, but shot 48 percent from the field on 18-37.

The Racers had things going their way in the second half when they had a 51-43 lead with 8:43 remaining.

“You've got to give Eastern Illinois credit,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “I thought they did a good job of not beating themselves, executing their offense and stepping up and making free throws when they needed to.”

“Then you've got to make free throws,” Kennedy added.”We're up five or seven and a chance to go up 10 to 12 and we didn't make free throws. Then we turned the ball over and that's where you're going to have scoring droughts.”

MSU was led in scoring by B.J. Jenkins with 15 as he was the only Racer in double-figure scoring.

NOTES
The Racers are 6-2 this season at home, but after losing to Austin Peay (Jan. 8), they've lost back-to-back games for only the fifth time in the 13 seasons at the CFSB Center. The last occurrence was in February 2007 when they lost in overtime to Tennessee State (64-60) and then to Samford (70-60) in the quarterfinals of the OVC Tournament.

The loss broke a 23-game win streak in games in which the Racers had a lead of less than 10 points when the clock turned under five minutes left in the game. The last loss for MSU in this situation was at Morehead State on Dec. 6, 2008 by a 79-74 score.

MSU has lost back-to-back games in the rebound stat. TTU had a plus-10 advantage Saturday and EIU won the stat tonight 33-26 including 17 on the offensive glass.

The Racers' next game is Saturday at home against Southeast Missouri State. MSU is 47-16 against the Redhawks all-time and 22-8 at home. MSU has won the last seven against SEMO.