Racers Roll To 25th Straight Home Win - 64-53 Over Tennessee State

Thursday, January 6

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Tennessee State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Racers Roll To 25th Straight Home Win - 64-53 Over Tennessee State

1/6/2011 5:01:51 PM | Men's Basketball

Boxscore

Boxscore (PDF)

The Murray State Racers rolled to their 25^th straight home win Thursday with a 64-53 victory over Tennessee State at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky., as MSU upped their record in the Ohio Valley Conference to 3-1 and 10-4 overall.

Donte Poole came off the bench to match his career high with 16 points on 4-of-4 shooting from three-point range and was 6-of-7 overall from the field. Isacc Miles added 12 points and a game-high four steals.

MSU jumped to a 23-13 lead when Miles got a steal and hit Jewuan Long for a layup with 5:12 before half.

MSU pushed to their biggest lead of the half with 1.3 seconds left on a pair of free throws from Jeffery McClain and MSU led 37-21 at the break.

The Racers broke the game open with a 10-3 run in the second half when Shawn Jackson and Poole led the charge for a 59-37 lead with 4:24 remaining.

MSU held the Tigers to only nine field goals in the first half and 38 percent shooting for the game, while hitting 50 percent of their own shots. MSU won the battle of the boards 32-24 and has 12 rebounds on the offensive end.

The Racers held TSU, a hot shooting team coming in, to five three-point baskets after they hit 12 against Memphis last weekend.

MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy was pleased with the defensive effort.

“We're always trying to limit their two primary scorers and I thought our guys were focused on personnel,” he said. “To hold them to 38 percent and if you take the last five minutes out, it may have been less than that. Isacc, really made his presence known on the defensive end and that's something he hasn't really been doing as much as he's done in the past.”

“Donte Poole has been working hard on his shooting,” Kennedy added. “He made shots tonight and was really aggressive after the first five minutes; Jewuan Long probably played his best half of the year in the first half.”

NOTES

The Racers pushed their home winning streak to 25 with the win and are now an amazing 48-2 at the CFSB Center since 2008.

MSU still has a distance to go to challenge the 47-game streak the team had between 1998-2000. That record streak was the longest in the nation when it ended with a loss to SE Missouri on Jan. 15, 2000. MSU's streak is fourth-best in the nation behind Kansas at 68, Duke with 28 and Kentucky at 26.

MSU leads the all-time series with TSU 45-14 and are 26-5 at home against the Tigers.

Donte Poole tied his career high 16 points matching the total he had last February against the Tigers. He also had 16 against Tennessee Wesleyan last season.

Isacc Miles set a career-high with four steals.

MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy was honored Thursday as the first recipient of the Murray Ledger & Times Sportsman of the Year award. The Racers had a dream season in 2009-10 with 31 wins and their first NCAA Tournament win since 1988 when MSU took down Vanderbilt in the first round.

Kennedy took another step closer to two milestone marks in his coaching career tonight. He now has 94 in his fifth season at MSU and 198 in his 13^th season as a head coach that also includes some great work at Centenary (1997-2000) and Southeastern Louisiana (2000-2005). Kennedy's .661 winning percentage at MSU is third among coaches who have coached five or more seasons.

Now the Racers get ready for a Saturday showdown with Austin Peay at 11 a.m. at the CFSB Center. The game has many events attached to it including Hotcakes for Heroes and the United Way White Out. ESPNU will also be airing the game with Rich Hollenberg and Mark Adams calling the action. Murray State grad Doug Tutt has directed many games for the network over the years with a good number of them at MSU, he'll be working the game Saturday.