Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Austin Peay
Govs Make For Good Canaan Fodder - Racers Tie All-Time Best Program Start In 87-75 Win
1/7/2012 7:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers kept their perfect start to the season going Saturday with a 87-75 win over Austin Peay at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn. MSU's 16-0 mark ties the program record from the MSU team in 1935
Getting 35 points from Isaiah Canaan, the Racers (16-0 and 4-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference) ended the night one of three unbeaten teams in NCAA D-I.
The Racers, #18/19, burst from the gate on the shoulders of junior Isaiah Canaan who hit the Govs for four straight three-pointers and scored the team's first 16 points as MSU jumped to an 18-6 lead at the 14:36 mark. He would go on to score 22 points in the game's first 10 minutes, draining his sixth 3-pointer of the game with 10:17 remaining in the half.
However, APSU (3-13, 0-3) closed the half on a 20-9 run, scoring nine straight points with five minutes remaining in the half to cut MSU's lead to 45-40 at halftime.
Canaan ended the half 10-of-11 from the floor, sinking all seven of his 3-point attempts to lead the Racers with 27 points in the opening half.
MSU pushed their lead back to 12 with 15:27 left on a pair of threes from Donte Poole.
Again the Govs made a run and cut the MSU lead to 70-67 at the 6:38 mark. The Racers made sure the Govs never got any closer. Back-to-back jumpers by Jewuan Long and MSU's lead was back to seven (76-69) at 4:32.
Ed Daniel carried the scoring load in the second half, scoring 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting and made 5-of-7 free throw attempts. He ended the night the Racers' second-leading scorer with 19 points. Daniel grabbed 11 rebounds in the game to lead all players, getting seven boards in the second half as MSU out-rebounded the Govs 17-15.
Poole and Long each ended the night in double figures for MSU, Poole adding 13 points and Long scoring 11.
The Racers completed the game 10-18 (54.5 percent) from behind the arc, the fourth time they have finished the game above 50 percent from three this season. They were 54.5 percent shooting overall on the night while holding Austin Peay to 43.9 percent.
Murray State returns home this week, hosting Jacksonville State Thursday night. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the CFSB Center.
Game Notes
The Racers will return to the floor next week for a pair of games at the CFSB Center with Jacksonville State on Thursday (Jan. 12) and Tennessee Tech Saturday (Jan. 14). The JSU game begins at 7 p.m. and the TTU game at 5 p.m. in a contest that will be aired by ESPNU.
MSU's winning streak of 16 has tied the best start to a season in the 87 years of Racer Basketball. The 1935-36 squad also started 16-0 under the program's first head coach, Carlisle Cutchin. MSU is one win away from tying the program's all-time winning streak of 17, which was set by Billy Kennedy's Racers in the 2009-10 season.
MSU has won four of their last seven times at the Dunn Center. MSU is 25-27 all-time at APSU and leads the series that started in 1941, 71-41.
Canaan's hot start with 6-of-6 from three-point range caused a good look at the MSU record book. The MSU single game record of nine, set by Justin Burdine against Eastern Kentucky in 2002 still stands. James Singleton's 8-of-8 against Eastern Illinois from 2003 still stands as MSU's best game as far as percentage goes.
