Racers Claim CIT Win at Missouri State

Wednesday, March 19

Springfield, Mo.

7:05 p.m.

Murray State

19-11

Missouri State

20-13

Murray State

Missouri State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

3/19/2014 10:59:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

I Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State Racers came away with a 66-63 win Wednesday over the Missouri State Bears in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament at JQH Arena in Springfield, Mo.

Tyler Rambo made a steal and scored his only basket of the game with 1:13 remaining to cut the Bears lead to 63-62. With 42 seconds left, the Racers forced a miss which led to a Cameron Payne floater in the paint to put MSU in front 64-63 with 19.6 seconds left.

After Missouri State called a timeout, the Racers held again with Payne grabbing the rebound and getting fouled. MSU's Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year went to the free throw line with 7.1 left and made a pair to put MSU in front by three points. In the remaining seconds, the Racers defense didn't allow the Bears to get a shot off as they covered a loose ball when time expired.

Jarvis Williams led the Racers (19-11) with his 14^th double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Payne tossed in 19 points. Jeffery Moss added 10 points and eight rebounds.

In the first half, the Racers broke from the gate in a great way when they hit 5-of-10 shots to lead 16-3 only six minutes into the contest. The Racers kept the Bears without a field goal until Jarmar Gulley scored at the 15:35 mark. At the start, the Racers held the Bears to 1-of-10 from the field.

MSU led 18-9 at the 11:41 mark when Williams scooped up a loose ball and scored.

The Bears jumped in front by four when Nathan Scheer hit a 3-pointer, but Moss hit from long range seven seconds later to end the half with MSU trailing the Bears 37-36.

Missouri State opened the second half on a 7-0 run to lead the Racers 44-36 with 18:37 remaining.

Jonathan Fairell scored two straight baskets and the Racers had the game knotted 52-52 with 11:00 left.

The Racers move to the round of the 16 in CIT where their next assignment is not yet been determined. Once news of the Racers' pairing is known, fans will be notified on GoRacers.com as soon as possible.

Game Notes
With the win, the Racers recorded their first win since Feb. 27 at UT Martin. The game tonight was only MSU's third game in nearly three weeks. MSU had lost their regular season final (March 1) at Southeast Missouri and to Eastern Kentucky (March 7) in the OVC Tournament semifinals.

The win marks the Racers' 23rd all-time post-season appearance and their 28^th game. MSU has played 18 NCAA Tournament games, nine in the National Invitation Tournament and this was their first game in the CIT. Since 2010, the Racers are 3-3 in all post-season games. Two of those wins are in the NCAA Tournament: 2010 over Vanderbilt in San Jose, Calif., and 2012 in Louisville against Colorado State.