Racers Begin 91st Season At Home Friday

Friday, November 13

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

Harris-Stowe State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

11/11/2015 11:43:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes I Live Audio I Live Video I Live Stats

The 91st season of collegiate basketball begins Friday for the Murray State Racers when they welcome the Harris-Stowe State Hornets to the CFSB Center for a 7 p.m. game. The grand occasion of the season opener is part of a doubleheader at The Bank. The Racer men play after the women's team hosts Oakland City at 5 p.m.

All Murray State games are heard over free radio on WFGE Froggy 103.7 FM and online at Froggy103.com and GoRacers.com. Neal Bradley is in his 25th season as the Voice of the Racers. Former MSU assistant coach Kenny Roth provides analysis. Free video streaming of the game will be seen on OVCDigitalNetwork.com

MSU's 16th head coach is Matt McMahon and he'll be looking to join 11 of his predecessors who were victorious in their rookie season opener. Dusting off the record book, Racer rookie coaches have had memorable first games over the years. Fred Overton won the only road game in 1974 at Baylor and Tevester Anderson opened the CFSB Center in 1998 with a win over SIU. Billy Kennedy's first game ended on the losing end in 2006 when San Diego State's Brandon Heath hit a half court shot at the Saint Mary's tournament in Moraga, Calif.

The Racers are coming off an exhibition loss (Nov. 5) in overtime to Freed-Hardeman 87-85. Murray State's Bryce Jones and Damarcus Croaker had double-double performances. Jones (14 points/10 assists) and Croaker (14 points/10 rebounds) joined Gee McGhee (20 points/8 rebounds) as offensive leaders.

The Racers have lost their last two season openers. In 2014, Houston beat the Racers 77-74 at the CFSB Center and in 2013, the Racers lost at Valparaiso 77-74. Prior to that, the Racers beat East Tennessee (2010), Harris-Stowe (2011) and Brescia (2012) all at home. The Racers are 53-14 since 1948 in season openers and 63-4 in home openers in the modern era which started when the OVC was formed in 1948.

The Racers open the season after dropping an exhibition game (Nov. 5) at home to Freed-Hardeman 87-85 in overtime. The loss came on a night when the Racers couldn't get it going from long range as they were 4-of-29 from the 3-point line. Even so, the Racers did a lot of good things including narrowly missing three players with a double-double. MSU had big games from Bryce Jones (14 points/10 assists), Damarcus Croaker (14 points/10 rebounds) and Gee McGhee (20 points/8 rebounds).

The Harris-Stowe Hornets travel to MSU from St. Louis, Mo., with three games under their belts already. Coached by rookie head coach Alfred Williams, HSSU is 2-1 and 1-0 in the American Midwest Conference. Playing in the same NAIA conference as Freed-Hardeman, the Hornets defeated Indiana-SE (Oct. 24) 73-51 at home. They won on the road (Nov. 3) at Williams Baptist (70-61) before dropping a road game (Nov. 6) at Saint Francis 87-74. Dominic Phillips leads the Hornets with a scoring average of 14.7, with Amenofis Mitchell at 10.3. Steve Wing leads in rebounding at 5.7. The Hornets are hitting 40 percent from the field (75-of-0184) and 26 percent from the 3-point line (12-of-45). Additionally, HSSU shoots 60 percent from the free throw line (55-of-91). Jalen Fletcher was the 2015 AMC Freshman of the Year and is scoring 5.0 points per game. HSSU plays another OVC team (Nov. 25) when they travel to UT Martin. MSU played the Hornets in the home and season opener in 2011 and posted a 76-49 win. This was the first and only meeting between the two.