Racers Take BracketBusters Game 72-47 Over Evansville

Saturday, February 19

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

Evansville

Photo by: Tab Brockman

2/19/2011 11:07:50 PM | Men's Basketball

Jeffery McClain Gets Career-High In Rebounds And Assists

Boxscore

Boxscore(PDF)

Photo Gallery

The Murray State Racers defeated Evansville Saturday in the Sears BracketBusters game 72-47 in front of 4,024 at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

The win made the Racers 11-2 at home this season as they pushed their mark to 21-7, while Evansville fell to 14-13.

The Racers did it with an excellent second half when they held the Aces to 36 percent from the field on 8-of-22 shots.

More than anything, Head Coach Billy Kennedy saw his team rebound from Wednesday's poor performance in a loss at Southeast Missouri.

Jeffery McClain led the way with a great stat-line of 12 rebounds, eight points and six assists. The rebound and assists total were a career-high for McClain.

“Jeff epitomizes what I want this program to be about,” Kennedy said. “That is toughness, preparation and unselfish play. It's time for our seniors to step up and all of them did tonight.”

The Racers started fast when they got a steal and slam from Jewuan Long that was quickly followed by a three from B.J. Jenkins and a jumper from Isacc Miles for a 15-6 lead only six minutes into the game.

After leading 30-26 at the break, MSU started the second half on a 15-3 run to get a 45-29 lead with 15:13 left on a put- back by Ed Daniel.

MSU finished the game with a flurry on an 11-0 run to make it a 72-47 final as they outscored UE 41-21 in the second half.

“That was as good a second half as we've played in a long time,” Kennedy added. “We got back to what we do well. We've under achieved in some games this season, consistency is the key and it's the little things that add up at the end of the night.”

Jenkins was the game-high scorer for MSU with 16 points while Miles added 12 points and Canaan added 10.

MSU outrebounded Evansville 38-26.

NOTES

The Racers are now 11-2 at the CFSB Center and 38-4 over the last three seasons.

This was MSU's first game with Evansville since 2002 and first at home since 1991. As part of the Sears BracketBusters agreement, MSU will play at Evansville at some point over the next two seasons (2011-12 or 2012-13). The Racers lead the all-time series 22-10.

The Racers are 5-2 in the Sears BracketBusters series and have won the last two, including last season's win against Morgan State.

McClain's 12 rebounds mark a new career high. His previous best was 11 against Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 4, 2008. His six assists was also a new career high. McClain had three assists several times with the last coming against Southeast Missouri on Feb. 17, 2009.

McClain led MSU in rebounds and assists. The last player to do that was Jenkins against Western Kentucky (Dec. 18) with five rebounds and 10 assists.

Jenkins and Miles have started 64 straight games together and Miles has started 96.

Miles continues to press toward being the 32^nd player to earn a spot in the MSU 1000-Point Club. With his 12 points tonight, he now has 965.

The Ohio Valley Conference was 6-4 in the BracketBusters this season. Here are the scores.

Evansville 47

Murray State 72

Eastern Illinois 75

Toledo 58

Sacramento St. 52

SE Missouri 67

Gardner-Webb 58

Tenn. Tech 60