Racers Take Fourth Straight Win - 47-39 At Tennessee Tech

Thursday, January 24

Cookeville, Tenn.

7 p.m.

Murray State

15-4 (6-1)

Tennessee Tech

7-12 (1-6)

Murray State

Tennessee Tech

Photo by: Tennessee Tech Sports Information

Racers Take Fourth Straight Win - 47-39 At Tennessee Tech

1/24/2013 11:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score I Box Score(PDF)

The Murray State Racers won for the fourth straight time Thursday in a 47-39 road victory at Tennessee Tech at the Eblen Center in Cookeville, Tenn.

MSU (15-4) leads the west division in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 6-1 mark, as they also pushed their road record this season to 7-1.

In their lowest scoring game in years, the Racers found a way to get it done as Isaiah Canaan led the way with 15 points and Ed Daniel scored his 11^th double-double of the season with most of it in the second half with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The Racers' fourth straight win required a healthy second half comeback after they trailed Tech 26-20 at the half in a game that found both teams plagued by poor shooting and turnovers. As a matter of fact, both teams ended the game with more turnovers than field goals.

Starting the second half, MSU locked the Golden Eagles down and held TTU to 4-of-25 shooting for the final 20 minutes.

MSU outscored TTU 16-6 to start the second half and tied it 32-32 with 10:00 remaining. Daniel had a stretch where he drew a charge and made two blocked shots that gave the Racers a 34-32 lead with 8:39 left. The go ahead basket came from Stacy Wilson on a driving attempt that was ruled goaltending. Wilson made his second straight steal that led to a layup by Latreze Mushatt and MSU led 36-32 with 8:20 remaining.

Daniel sat out more than 14 minutes of the first half, but earned his 11^th double-double of the season with a big second half. His rebound and score with 4:07 left put MSU in front 43-34, their largest lead of the night.

Canaan and Wilson combined to hit 4-of-6 from the final in the final minute to seal the win.

While holding Tech to 16 percent shooting in the second half, MSU was 33 percent on 8-of-24 shots.

MSU ended the game shooting 34 percent on 16-of-47 shots, while TTU was 13-of-51 for 25 percent. MSU didn't hit a three point basket until their 13^th attempt and finished the day 1-of-18, but held TTU to 18 percent for the game on 3-of-17.

Both teams had more turnovers than field goals in the game. MSU gave it up 23 times, while Tech gave the ball back to MSU 19 times.

In the first half, the Racers broke from the gate in fine fashion in building an 8-0 lead only five minutes into the contest as they held TTU to 0-of-6 from the field. However, when Ed Daniel picked up his second personal foul at 14:19, the game flipped in Tech's favor. MSU suffered 14 turnovers in the opening half and TTU outscored them 26-12 to take a six-point lead at the break. MSU went the final 5:28 of the first half without a field goal.

MSU now has a day to prepare and travel to Jacksonville State where they have a 4:30 p.m. tip Saturday at Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville, Ala. The Saturday game will be the only meeting between the two in the regular season, as it was tonight for the Racers against TTU.

Game Notes

The combined 86 points in today's game at the Eblen Center marks the lowest combined scoring game for MSU in 27 years. On Dec. 14, 1985 under rookie head coach Steve Newton, the Racers and Evansville also scored 86 points. The Racers came away the winner at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Ind., 52-34.

MSU has won the last four against Tech and leads the series 123-47 and 45-37 in Cookeville.

MSU has won four straight with wins over Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, SIUE and TTU. MSU's last loss was at home to Eastern Kentucky (Jan. 9). The Racers have won 4-of-6 since losing back-to-back games to Dayton and Valparaiso in late December. MSU's season-long win streak is six.

Isaiah Canaan moved closer to becoming the sixth member of the MSU 2000-Point Club and the 17^th in the OVC club. Canaan's 15 points tonight means he has 1,776 for his MSU career.

Ed Daniel's 10 rebounds means he has moved past Tony Easley for 15^th place on the MSU career list. Daniel has 611, while Easley had 610 for the Racers from 2005-10. James Singleton (2001-03) who occupies the 14^th spot on the list, grabbed 632 rebounds in only two seasons.

MSU is now 7-1 in road games this season with their only loss coming at Dayton (Dec. 22). MSU was the only NCAA D-I team that was undefeated last season at 13-0. MSU is 20-1 in the Steve Prohm era on the road.