Racers Clinch OVC West With 10th Straight Home Win

Saturday, February 15

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

16-9 (11-2OVC)

Eastern Illinois

9-17 (6-8OVC)

Eastern Ill.

Murray St.

Photo by: Tab Brockman

2/15/2014 11:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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The Murray State Racers clinched the Ohio Valley Conference West Division and moved their home win streak to 10 with a 72-60 victory over the Eastern Illinois Panthers at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

The Racers (16-9, 11-2 OVC) earn a bye to the semifinals of the OVC Tournament in March by winning the division title. The Racers also moved into a tie for the overall lead of the OVC with Belmont as each team sits at 11-2.

EIU fell to 9-17 and 6-8 in league play.

Murray State got a stern test from the visiting Panthers and had to make key plays down the stretch for their 16^th win of the season.

MSU was leading 58-54 when EIU completed a 10-3 run with 6:12 remaining.

The Racers answered when Cameron Payne made a steal and T.J. Sapp dunked his alley oop pass. The Racers got a defensive stop at the 3:22 mark that led to a corner 3-pointer from Jeffery Moss and a 14-point lead (the largest of the game for MSU) with 2:15 remaining. Jarvis Williams sealed the win with a dunk off a fast break assist from Dexter Fields and the Racers ended the game outscoring EIU 12-6 in the final 6:12.

Moss led MSU with 18 points, with Sapp tossing in 13. Williams scored 12 points and Jonathan Fairell added 11. Williams had his streak of double-doubles end with eight rebounds after he had to deal with foul trouble. Fairell gave the MSU crowd a lot to cheer for in making 7-of-10 free throws while he reversed a season trend of poor shooting. His seven made free throws and nine attempted were both season highs for him.

The Racers shot 51 percent for the game on 22-of-43 from the field.

MSU had the lead at the half 32-27 and a large lead in the first 20 minutes of nine when it was 29-20 with 2:08 remaining.

MSU now has a week off before they host the Morehead State Eagles (Feb. 22) at the CFSB Center at 7 p.m. The game will mark the final home game for senior Dexter Fields.

Game Notes
The Racers' win streak at the CFSB Center is now 10 in a row since they lost to Middle Tennessee (Nov. 26).

The Racers sweep the season series with EIU after taking their first meeting (Jan. 16) in Charleston 70-66.

MSU leads the all-time series with EIU 39-9 and are 22-2 at home.

The Racers led at half time again tonight and are 15-3 this season when doing so. Since trailing at EIU (Jan. 16) MSU has gone eight games without trailing at halftime. They've had the lead in seven of those games with the exception of the Belmont game (Feb. 6) when the game was tied 45-45 at the half.