Racers Meet St. John's In Charleston Classic Semifinals

Friday, November 16

Charleston, SC

4:30 p.m.

Murray State

St. John's (NY)

Photo by: Ricky Martin/Ledger & Times

Racers Meet St. John's In Charleston Classic Semifinals

11/16/2012 3:25:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes I Live Audio I Live Video I Live Stats

TV: ESPN3 - Bob Picozzi & Jay Williams
Radio: Racer Radio - WFGE 103.7 FM
Neal Bradley & Dave Winder
Web Streaming: Video - ESPN3
Audio - GoRacers.com & Froggy103.com
Live Stats: TBA
Twitter In Game: @MSURacers @RacerDave23
Series: First Meeting
At Murray: None
At St. John's: None
Neutral: First Meeting
Steve Prohm vs St. John's: 0-0
Steve Lavin vs Murray State: 0-0

The Murray State Racers take on the St. John's Red Storm in the semifinals of the 2012 Charleston Classic Friday (Nov. 16) in a 4:30 p.m. tip at TD Arena in Charleston, S.C. The game will air on ESPN3.

In MSU's first Charleston Classic appearance, the Racers ran past the Auburn Tigers in Thursday's quarterfinal round with a convincing 79-59 win as Isaiah Canaan scored a game-high 26 points and Stacy Wilson added 18. The Racers used a suffocating defense and some hot shooting to quickly jump out to a 16-6 lead seven minutes into the game. MSU held the Tigers to without a field goal from the 9:01 mark to the 2:12 mark and used it to make a 14-2 run and went into the locker room with a commanding 45-19 lead at the half.

Canaan's 26 points moved him to 1,411 career points at MSU as he jumped past Grover Woolard (1973-77) and into 17th place. Canaan now takes aim at 16th place Don Mann (1985-89) who has 1,449 points. Mann was inducted into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame last January. Canaan hit three three-pointers in the win over Auburn and now has 215 in his career, as he tries to chase down the 251 that Frank Allen (1989-93) hit.

After winning the Great Alaska Shootout a year ago, the Racers are on a 4-0 win streak in early-season tournaments in the last two seasons.

The Racers are meeting the Red Storm for the first time and playing a team from the Big East Conference for the sixth time since the league formed in 1979. The Racers are 3-2. MSU's last game against the Big East was last March in the NCAA Tournament when the Racers slugged it out with Marquette for a spot in the Sweet 16. MSU was edged out 62-53 at the Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.

The Red Storm won their opening game in TD Arena over the host team. St. John's defeated host College of Charleston 64-53. D'Angelo Harrison scored 21 points to lead the way. Freshman JaKarr Sampson added eight points and 10 rebounds for St. John's. Amir Garrett had 11 and Phil Greene 10. St. John's opened up a 22-11 lead with nine minutes left in the half and led at the break 32-18.