Racers Begin 92nd Season - Illinois State Visits On Opening Night

EVENT INFORMATION
Date-Time: Nov. 11 - 7 p.m. CT Site: Murray, Ky. Arena: CFSB Center TV: None Radio: Racer Radio - WFGE 103.7 FM Neal Bradley & Kenny Roth Web Streaming: Audio: GoRacers.com & Froggy103.com Video: OVCDN Live Stats: GoRacers.com Twitter In Game: @RacersHoops @RacerDave23

Series Overall: Racers lead 2-1 Home: Racers lead 2-0 Away: Redbirds lead 1-0 Neutral: None First Meeting: 1971, Racers won home 85-74 Last Meeting: 2015, Redbirds won home 63-61 Next game MSU: At Middle Tenn. Nov. 15 Next game ISU: Home vs Fort. Wayne Nov. 16

ILLINOIS STATE REDBIRDS (18-14, 12-6 MVC in 2015-16)
Head Coach: Dan Muller (Illinois State, 1998)
Career Record: 76-58 (5th season) • At ISU: Same • MVC: 40-32

MURRAY STATE RACERS (17-14, 10-6 OVC in 2015-16)
Head Coach: Matt McMahon (Appalachian State, 2000)
Career Record: 17-14 (2nd season) • At MSU: Same • OVC: 10-6

Murray State men's basketball begins the 2016-17 season at home Friday (Nov. 11) when they welcome the Illinois State Redbirds to the CFSB Center for a 7 p.m. tip. All Racer games this season will be aired live on free radio on WFGE 103.7FM with Neal Bradley and Kenny Roth calling the action. Froggy103.com and GoRacers.com offer free online streaming audio. The game can be see free with streaming video from OVCDigitalNetwork.com.

The Racers and Redbirds are meeting for only the fourth time. They played the last two seasons with each team scoring a home win. In 2014, the Racers beat ISU at home 89-77, but lost at Redbird Arena in 2015 63-61. The first meeting happened in 1971 with the Racers winning at home 85-74.

Both squads have played and won exhibition games in the last week. The Racers defeated Berry College 116-71 and ISU hosted and won a game against Quincy 84-62.

This is the third straight season the Racers have opened the season at home. IN 2014 they lost to Houston and last year they defeated Harris-Stowe. The Racers have won 25-of-26 home openers since 1990. The only loss was to Houston in 2014. The Racers are 54-14 all-time in season openers since the start of the OVC in 1948 and they're 64-4 during that time in home openers.

The Racers' won their only exhibition game at home over Berry College (Nov. 3) by a score of 116-71. Damarcus Croaker scored 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Gilbert Thomas scored 21 points on 9-of-10 from the floor. The Racers had 28 assists on their 43 field goals.

Murray State head coach Matt McMahon enters his second season as the leader of the Racer program that will be playing its 92nd season of collegiate basketball and 69th in the Ohio Valley Conference.

When Ohio Valley Conference media day was held in Nashville (Oct. 22), the Racers were voted the favorite in the West Division and senior guard Bryce Jones was named to the OVC Preseason Team. Once the Racers get to league play in 2017, they'll be trying to win their 25th regular season title and when the OVC Tournament rolls around in March, the Racers will try for their 16th title, which would send them to the NCAA's for a matching 16th time.

The Racers' tough schedule continues next week when they play Tuesday at Middle Tennessee (Nov. 15) before heading to play three games at Bowling Green where they'll play the host team as well as Green Bay and UMKC.

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Players Mentioned

Damarcus Croaker

Bryce Jones