Racers Drop 89-76 NIT Loss At Missouri State

Tuesday, March 15

Springfield, Mo.

7 p.m.

Murray State

Missouri State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

3/15/2011 10:45:19 PM | Men's Basketball

Boxscore

Boxscore(PDF)

The Murray State Racers saw their season come to an end Tuesday with an 89-76 loss to Missouri State in the National Invitational tournament at JQH Arena in Springfield, Mo.

The Racers played a first half that saw lead when the first basket of the game went down as a three-pointer by B.J. Jenkins.

MSU fell behind by six at 15-9 before they rallied to tie the game 23-23 at 8:35 before half.

The Bears (26-8) finished the half on a 13-6 run to take a 38-31 lead.

Murray State stayed in the game thanks mainly to the play of Ivan Aska and Isacc Miles. Together they combined for 23 of MSU's 31 points and hit 11-of-15 from the field.

Missouri State jumped to a 45-32 in the first minutes of the second half and eventually built a 15-point lead at the 13:00 mark before MSU cut the lead to 62-52 with 11:42 remaining.

Again MSU went on a 13-1 run to cut the lead to 68-66 7:31 mark on a Brandon Garrett dunk and three-pointer from Jewuan Long and another long bomb from B.J. Jenkins.

Missouri State answered with a 5-0 run to lead 75-66 with 4:19 remaining to put the game away.

Aska led the Racers with 16 points, with 15 from Long and 13 from Miles and Canaan pitching in 11.

The Racers shot well with a 54 percent clip from the field, but found it hard to stop the Bears on their home court as they managed 55 percent from the field.

MSU's class of four seniors (B.J. Jenkins, Isacc Miles, Jeffery McClain and Picasso Simmons) played their final game for MSU.

“We've won two conference titles and you don't do that with just talent,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “You do it with leadership, attitude and toughness and our seniors have given us that this season.”

“We gained the experience of playing in a game like this,” Kennedy added. “This is the kind of experience we can build on and I'm looking forward to it.”

With the loss, Murray State (23-9) finishes another outstanding season in which they won the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title for a second straight year and finished with the program's 24^th 20-win season.