Big Time Buckets - Stark's 32 Leads Racers Past JSU - Murray State University Athletics

Thursday, February 15

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

21-5 (13-2OVC)

Jacksonville State

18-10 (9-6OVC)

Jacksonville St.

Murray St.

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Big Time Buckets - Stark's 32 Leads Racers Past JSU

2/15/2018 10:05:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The winning streak is eight in a row for the Murray State Racers after they defeated the Jacksonville Gamecocks 68-60 Thursday at the CFBS Center in Murray, Ky. The Racers also pushed their home win streak to eight with their 21st win of the season.

In a game that had postseason intensity, the Racers (21-5) kept a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference with Belmont, each at 13-2. MSU wraps up the home portion of the regular season Saturday when they host the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at 7 p.m. on Senior Day. The Racers will honor fabulous seniors Terrell Miller, Jr., and Jonathan Stark before the game.

On a day when the Racers wished to overturn the trend of an earlier loss to JSU at their arena in January, the Racers got the job done with outstanding defense and timely shooting.

When JSU took the lead at 45-43 with 8:12 remaining, Jonathan Stark was unleashed and scored 10-straight points to put the Racers ahead 53-47 at 5:44. When Byron Hawkins hit the only shot he attempted, a 3-pointer from the corner with 49 seconds left, the Racers had outlasted the tough Gamecocks in a key OVC clash.

Stark finished the game with 32 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-11 from the 3-point line. In his recent trend of getting to the free throw line a lot, he also knocked down 12-of-15. Stark also added five assists. Terrell Miller, Jr., was MSU's only other double-digit scorer with 12 points. Freshman guard Ja Morant dished out six assists to go with six rebounds.

In the first half, Stark didn't hit his first field goal until the 7:33 mark and his first 3-pointer at the 6:07 mark to tie the game at 18-18. MSU finished the half on an 11-5 run thanks to a brilliant Morant steal and alley oops lame for Shaq Buchanan and back-to-back baskets by Anthony Smith. The Racers went into the halftime leading JSU 29-23.

Game Notes
MSU is 13-2 at the CFSB Center this season and have won eight-straight since a loss to Auburn (Dec. 19).

Coach Matt McMahon is now 54-36 in his fourth season at Murray State and 31-16 in OVC games. Overall the Racers are 33-10 at home in the McMahon era and 19-5 in OVC play.

McMahon is 3-1 against Jacksonville State.

MSU led JSU 29-23 at half and are now 18-3 when doing so this season.

The Racers even the season series with JSU 1-1 with the win tonight. JSU beat the Racers on their home floor 76-71 back on Jan. 11. JSU and TTU are making return trips to MSU because of the expansion of the OVC schedule from 16 games to 18. The OVC is no longer using their east/west division setup, but still use the divisions for scheduling purposes. This season, Tech and JSU are the two teams from the east that the Racers play twice.

Miller continues his run to reach the coveted 1,000-point mark. After his 12 points tonight, he has 918 in his 59 games at MSU.

Stark now has 1,277 points in his two seasons. He's only two points from catching Cameron Payne (2013-15) for second place on the MSU all-time two-year scoring list. Tops on that list is De'Teri Mayes (1996-98) who has 1,340.

Stark's 32 points tonight is his second 30-point game this season. He had 36 (Jan. 4) at home against SEMO.

The Racers have had their way at home against OVC foes SIUE (12-straight wins), Morehead State (11-straight) and Jacksonville State (10-straight). SIUE and JSU have never beaten the Racers at the CFSB Center since they joined the OVC and Morehead's last win was in 2003.