Racers Outlast Old Dominion 79-72

Saturday, November 24

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

4-1

Old Dominion University

1-5

Old Dominion

Murray State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

11/24/2012 9:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score I Box Score (PDF)

A pair of seniors led the way for the Murray State Racers Saturday night in a 79-72 win over the Old Dominion Monarchs in a hard-fought contest at the CFSB Center.

Senior All-America Isaiah Canaan led the Racers with 30 points, while All-OVC pick Ed Daniel scored his third straight double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds to push MSU to a 4-1 record.

Leading by five at the half, the Racers fell behind for the first time since 5-4 as ODU took a 48-47 lead with 15:36 left. Canaan had a three-point play at the 12:41 mark for a lead of 53-50. But as the lead see-sawed, MSU was again down by three points when Daniel missed a free throw, but the rebound came to Dexter Fields who fed Canaan for another three pointer for a 65-65 tie with 6:43 remaining.

Fields came up big hitting his third three of the night at the 5:27 mark erasing the last time MSU would trail the Monarchs. But again the game was tied with 2:45 left when Canaan hit his sixth three of the game to give MSU the lead for good at 71-68. Canaan and Daniel each drew a charge in the final two minutes and combined for 4-of-6 from the free throw line to seal the win.

Canaan tied his career-high with 11 three-point attempts, of which he hit six. He was 10-of-18 overall in the game. Daniel set a career-high with 15 rebounds, one better than the 14 he grabbed in the NCAA Tournament last March against Marquette. Brandon Garrett scored a key basket with 48 seconds left and was 6-of-6 from the field with a career-high 13 points. Fields added nine points and had a season-high five assists.

The Racers shot 49 percent from the field for the game and while they didn't stifle the Monarchs, they held them low enough to win at 44 percent. MSU was 42 percent from the three-point line, while ODU shot 30 percent.

The Racers had a strong first half in building a 40-35 lead at the break.

Trailing early 5-4, MSU had an 11-2 run in 2:38 to take a 21-11 lead on a pair of Canaan threes and one from C.J. Ford. ODU answered with an 11-1 run to cut MSU's lead to 31-29 at the 4:21 mark. MSU got a pair of free throws from Terron Gilmore and a basket from Garrett to finish the half.

It's a quick turnaround for the Racers with their next game coming Monday at Lipscomb. The game tips at 6:30 p.m. as MSU visits Allen Arena for the first time. MSU won their first meeting with Lipscomb at home last season 89-65. The game can be heard and streamed on Froggy 103.7 FM and is also streamed on GoRacers.com. ESPN3 will also air the game.

Game Notes
MSU has won four straight at the CFSB Center with taking the last two games of last season against Austin Peay and Saint Mary's and two wins this season against Brescia and ODU. MSU is 15-1 in the Steve Prohm era at home. MSU is 43-3 (.934) in the last four seasons at the CFSB Center.

MSU is 27-0 in the Prohm era when they hold opponents under 45 percent shooting. Prohm is on track to become the fastest to 40 wins among MSU coaches with 35 wins in 38 games. Mick Cronin set the mark in 2004 winning 40 times in 53 games.

Daniel is the first Racer to get 15 rebounds in a game since Shawn Witherspoon had 15 in 2005 against Rice. Cuthbert Victor also had 15 boards against SE Missouri in 2004. Daniel has three straight double-doubles marking the longest streak for a Racer since James Singleton had three streaks of five in the 2002-03 season.

Canaan's 30-point night marks his fifth game of 30 or more and his first this season.

Garrett's 13 points is a career-high surpassing the eight points he had against Brescia in the season opener.