Racers Upset 65-60 At SIUE

Thursday, February 14

Edwardsville, Ill.

7 p.m.

Murray State

18-6, 9-3OVC

SIU Edwardsville

9-13, 5-7OVC

Team	1	2	F
Murray State	30	30	60
SIUE	28	37	65

Photo by: Bob Brinson

2/14/2013 10:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score I Box Score(PDF)

The Murray State Racers saw their rally come up short Thursday in a 65-60 upset loss to SIUE at the Valadabene Center in Edwardsville, Ill.

The loss was just MSU's first back-to-back road losses since December of 2008 as they fell to 18-6 overall and 9-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Leading 30-28 at halftime, the Racers led for the last time 41-40 with 12:57 remaining. SIUE took the lead for good on a pair of Mark Yelovich free throws at the 12:08 mark.

MSU was still down by a single point with 9:07 left when Latreze Mushatt scored to make it a 44-43 Cougars lead. But for the next 3:16, MSU hit 1-of-4 from the field while SIUE (9-13, 5-7) hit three straight shots, the last of which was a three-pointer from Kris Davis to give the Cougars a 53-45 lead with 6:12 left. Davis also added a pair of free throws in SIUE's 9-2 run.

MSU trailed by eight again with 1:55 remaining and made one more run to try and claim their 10^th OVC win of the season.

Ed Daniel's slam dunk cut the lead to 59-55 with 1:11 left and when Yelovich missed an ensuing jumper, the Racers looked to have another chance, but SIUE's Tim Johnson grabbed the offensive rebound with 37 seconds left. Yelovich was fouled and made one free throw for a 60-55 lead.

Stacy Wilson's three-pointer at 12 seconds cut the lead back to four and Isaiah Canaan's layup up with :03 left made it a 63-60 game, but MSU never got possession with a chance to tie.

In the first half, MSU got the lead for the first time at 19-17 with 7:12 left and had their largest lead of the game at 6:01 with a 24-17 advantage.

Canaan and Wilson led the way for MSU each scoring 20 points marking the first game for the Racers with a pair of 20-point men since Canaan (21 points) and Daniel (21) did it at Evansville (Dec. 8). Dexter Fields led MSU with career-high nine rebounds surpassing the six he had against St. John's (Nov. 16).

Each team made 23 field goals in the game with MSU going 23-of-59 for 39 percent, while SIUE shot 41 percent on 23-of-56 shots. MSU managed 18 percent from three-point range on 3-of-16 tries, with the Cougars going 4-of-11 for 36 percent. MSU was 11-of-13 from the free throw line for 85 percent, while SIUE was 79 percent on 15-of-19 shots.

Before Thursday, MSU had lost its last road contest at Jacksonville State 65-64 (Jan. 26). The loss to SIUE means MSU has dropped back-to-back road games for the first time since December 2008. In the early part of that season, MSU lost at Morehead State 79-74 (Dec. 6) and then at Missouri 75-64 (Dec. 13).

MSU will try to rebound Saturday when they travel to Charleston, Ill., for a 6 p.m. tip at Lantz Arena when they face the Eastern Illinois Panthers. MSU won the first match up of the season at home 70-49 (Jan. 17). MSU can wrap up the OVC west division title and one of the top seeds to the OVC Tournament with a win at EIU.

The game can be heard over the air on WFGE 103.7 FM and online at Froggy103.com and GoRacers.com. The Racer TV Network has the game on the cable systems of Time Warner, Mediacom, Murray Electric and Comcast. The game is also available online on ESPN3 and the OVC Digital Network.