Second Half Surge Leads Racers Past SIUE 70-61

Saturday, January 19

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

14-4, 5-1OVC

SIU Edwardsville

6-10, 2-4OVC

SIUE

Murray State

Photo by: Kyser Lough/Ledger & Times

1/19/2013 3:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

I Box Score(PDF)

The Murray State Racers used a 23-7 run over a 6:59 stretch to come back in the second half for a 70-61 over the SIUE Cougars in front of 5,101 at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

The win pushed MSU to 14-4 and 5-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while SIUE fell to 6-10 and 2-4.

Trailing 40-28 with 18:18 remaining, the Racers had a lightning-quick 12-2 run in only 1:09. Isaiah Canaan scored seven of the points in the run to cut the SIUE lead to 42-38 at 15:35.

MSU took its first lead of the night at the 11:20 mark when Canaan hit a pair of free throws for a 49-47 lead. Moments later Mark Yelovich hit a three pointer and SIUE was back in front 50-49 with 10:14 remaining. The Racers reeled off another run and took their largest lead of the game of six when MSU forced a turnover and Stacy Wilson had an easy slam. MSU led 58-52 with 5:22 left.

Canaan led the Racers with 20 points, while also notching career-bests with nine assists and seven steals. Wilson tossed in 13 and Ed Daniel had 15. Daniel pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for his 10^th double-double of the season.

It was a tail of two halves indeed as MSU fell behind by 14 at 24-10 with 9:01 in the first half. MSU ended the half down 34-23 and shot 27 percent (8-of-30) from the field while SIUE was 57 percent (12-of-21). In the second half MSU shot 68 percent (17-25) and held SIUE to 37 percent (11-30).

The Racers have won three straight three straight and four of their last five.

MSU hits the road next week for a pair of OVC battles when they play at Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State. Thursday's game in Cookeville, Tenn., is a 7 p.m. start on ESPNU, while the game on Saturday at Jacksonville State is a 4:30 p.m. start on the Racer TV Network and ESPN3. Racer Radio has all MSU games over the air on WFGE 103.7 FM and online at Froggy103.com and GoRacers.com

Game Notes
The Racers are 6-2 at home this season. In their 15^th season in the CFSB Center, the Racers are 178-30 (.855) overall and 106-20 (.841) in OVC games.

MSU is also closing in on win 1,600 in the 88 seasons of the program. MSU is now a record of 1,492-828 (.642). Already this season MSU notched its 600^th win in OVC play, tops in the league with a win at UT Martin (Jan. 3).

Canaan's nine assists bested his career-high of eight against Harris-Stowe (Nov. 11, 2011) and his seven steals were better than the five he had against Arkansas State (Dec. 27, 2011). He is now in 10^th place on the MSU all-time assists list with 329, just behind ninth place Grover Woolard (1974-77). Canaan also moved up to 10^th on the steals list with 136, behind ninth place Glen Green (1979-83).

Canaan has 1,761 points and is in ninth place on the all-time MSU list behind eighth place Frank Allen (1989-93) who had 1,811 points. Canaan is 239 points from becoming the sixth at MSU and the 17^th in the OVC to reach 2,000.

Daniel had his 10^th double-double this season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He becomes the 16^th Racer to get at least 600 career rebounds now with 601. He's just behind former teammate Tony Easley (2005-10) who had 610 and is in 15^th place.