Racers Run Wild In Second Half Against Prairie View

Saturday, December 1

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

Prairie View

Murray St.

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

12/1/2018 10:28:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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A strong second half meant the Murray State Racers ran away with an 83-67 victory over the Prairie View A&M Panthers Saturday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.

The win for the Racers (4-1) pushes their home winning streak to 13 as they head out on the road with their next game Saturday (Dec. 8) at Middle Tennessee.

Ja Morant scored 22 of his 25 points in the second half to go with a team-high nine rebounds and six assists. The Racers had one of their best balanced scoring games when Shaq Buchanan added 14 and Mike Davis added 12 and Tevin Brown 10 points.

With as good as the Racers played in outscoring the Panthers 45-31, it started at the end of the first half when MSU ended the first 20 minutes with an 8-0 run for a 38-36 lead at intermission.

MSU's lead went from two points to 10 points in less than five minutes into the final half when Morant hit on a pair of fast break baskets and MSU also got a rebound and score from Brown for a 52-42 lead at 14:48. The lead went to 16 with three minutes left on a Buchanan 3-point basket.

The Racers won the rebound battle 43-35 and had a season-low turnover total of 10 in the four NCAA D-I games they've played this season.

The Racers now have a week open to take final exams for the fall semester and will return to the court away from home Saturday in a 7 p.m. game at Middle Tennessee.

Game Notes
Ja Morant was 0-of-6 from the field in the first half and only had three points on three free throws. He more than made up for it in the second half in hitting 6-of-6 shots in the second half and was 9-of-10 from the free throw line. His final line was 6-of-12 from the field and 12-of-14 from the free throw line for 25 points with nine rebounds and six assists.

Tied for the top spot in NCAA D-I in assists per game at 90 as the night began, Ja Morant had nine tonight. He was sixth in the nation in scoring at 27.8 and scored 25 points tonight.

Mike Davis had his best game so far as a Racer. In only his fifth game at MSU, Davis tied his season-best with 21 minutes on the floor and he was very productive. Davis finished with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting with five rebounds and one blocked shot.

The Racers had a poor first half in the shoot area with a clip of 39 percent (12-of-31), but turned that into a 50 percent second half (13-of-26).

MSU had a season-low 10 turnovers against Prairie View.

The Racers' home winning streak at the CFSB Center is now at 13. MSU hasn't lost a home game since December 2017 against Auburn. MSU's next chance to continue the streak is Dec. 15 when the Jackson State comes to town. The Racers will also honor Racer great head coach Tevester Anderson and the great career he had at Murray State as an assistant (1995-98) and later as head coach for five seasons (1998-03) and later 10 seasons as head coach at Jackson State (2003-13).