Racers Slip Past Pepperdine At Gulf Coast Showcase

Tuesday, November 24

Estero, Fla.

5 p.m.

Murray State

4-1

Pepperdine

2-3

Pepperdine

Murray St.

Photo by: Bob Callighan

11/24/2015 2:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Murray State Racers have a date in the Gulf Coast Showcase championship game after they posted a 59-55 victory Tuesday over the Pepperdine Waves in Estero, Fla., at Germain Arena.

The Racers will meet the Weber State Wildcats in Wednesday's title tilt starting at 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Weber State defeated Drake in the other semifinals 74-58

Trailing 53-51 with 2:45 left, the Racers came up with the key plays to push their record to 4-1.

An 8-2 run to the finish started with a pair of free throws from Bryce Jones with 1:59 remaining to tie the score. After Pepperdine hit two from the line, Chad Culbreath hit a layup to tie it again with 1:30 left. Pepperdine gave the ball back to MSU on a turnover, which led to Wayne Langston hitting two of his 17 points to give the Racers the lead for good with 53 seconds left. The Waves missed a 3-point try and fouled Jeffery Moss who hit both free throws with 11 seconds left to seal the win.

Langston tied for game honors with a career high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Moss scored 12 points for MSU's only other double-digit scorer.

The Racers' defense again saved the day on what was a slow shooting game with the team hitting 40 percent on 22-of-51 shots. MSU locked Pepperdine down in the final five minutes holding the Waves to 1-of-6 including three misses from the 3-point line. The Racers held the Waves to 37 percent for the game on 20-of-54 from the field.

Game Notes

The Racers have enjoyed a good run in regular season tournaments in the last five seasons. In 2011, they won the Great Alaska Shootout and in 2012 finished runner up at the Charleston Classic. MSU now gets to play in a championship game again at the Gulf Coast Showcase.

Murray State and Weber State have no history. The Racers meet the Wildcats (Big Sky Conference) for the first time.

The Racers have had two days of great free throw shooting in crunch time. In the Milwaukee win Monday and today's win over Pepperdine, the Racers are 8-of-8 from the line in the last two minutes of the game.

Wayne Langston's career high 17 points means he has scored 12 or more points in four of the Racers' five games this season.

Freshman Chad Culbreath continues to produce off the bench for the Racers. In tonight's game, he was 4-of-6 from the field for nine points in 20 minutes.

Racer great men's basketball coach Ron Greene was at Germain Arena taking in a Racer game. Part of the 2016 Murray State Hall of Fame class, Coach Greene was the halftime guest on Racer Radio with Neal Bradley and Kenny Roth.