Racers Beat Milwaukee - Meet Pepperdine In Semis - Murray State University Athletics

Monday, November 23

Estero, Fla.

11 a.m.

Murray State

3-1

Milwaukee

4-2

Milwaukee

Murray St.

Photo by: Bob Callighan

Racers Beat Milwaukee - Meet Pepperdine In Semis

11/23/2015 10:46:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

I Box Score (PDF) I Bracket I Gulf Coast Showcase Home I Live Stats I Live Video I Live Audio

The Murray State Racers are ready for a semifinal meeting with the Pepperdine Waves Tuesday at 5 p.m. Central Time in Estero, Florida. The Racers handled Milwaukee in a thrilling 66-63 win in the quarterfinals of the Gulf Coast Showcase at Germain Arena.

See above the various live links that Racer fans can follow today when Murray State meets Pepperdine for the second time and the first since 1943.

Second Half Surge Leads To 66-63 Win Over Milwaukee

The Murray State Racers posted a 66-63 quarterfinal win over the Milwaukee Panthers at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida, at Germain Arena.

The win makes the Racers 3-1 and advances them to a Tuesday 5 p.m. CT semifinal against Pepperdine, an 84-70 winner over Duquesne.

Trailing 31-24 after a 32 percent shooting first half and down 33-24 in the first minute of the second half, the Racers heated up with three-straight 3-pointers from Bryce Jones. After his flurry, the Racers kept the pressure on and finally took their first lead when Justin Seymour hit a jumper with 11:19 remaining. The Racers hit four-straight 3-pointers in the 22-11 run. Three from Jones and one from Gee McGhee.

McGhee pushed the Racers in front by six points with 4:14 left, before the Panthers made a run and cut the lead to 64-63 on a 3-pointer by Austin Arians with 10 seconds left. Jeffery Moss hit a pair of free throws with six seconds left to set up a wild finish.

Needing a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime, Milwaukee got it from Jordan Johnson, but after the officials reviewed the play, the shot went in after time expired.

The Racers (3-1) celebrated a hard-fought 66-63 win in the first meeting with Milwaukee (4-2).

Murray State's balanced scoresheet included leading scorer Jones with 15 points and 13 points from Jeffery Moss who surpassed the career 1,000 point plateau in the game. Damarcus Croaker and Wayne Langston each scored 12 points with McGhee tossing in 10.

Croaker led the way with eight rebounds.

The Racers overcame a poor first half from the field where they were 8-of-25 for 32 percent, to hitting 16-of-33 in the second half for 49 percent.

Game Notes

Jeffery Moss became the 43^rd member of the MSU 1000-Point Club when he hit a free throw with 1:30 in the first half.

The Racers will meet Pepperdine for the first time since their only other meeting in 1943. MSU won that 1943 meeting 44-38 in the NICA National Tournament in Kansas City.

The Racers are 7-3 since 2011 in regular season tournaments. That includes 2011 when they won the championship of the Great Alaska Shootout and runner-up at the 2012 Charleston Classic.