Great Season Ends With Loss To West Virginia At NCAA's

Friday, March 16

San Diego, Calif.

3 p.m.

Murray State

26-6

West Virginia

25-10

MURRAY STATE

WEST VIRGINIA

Photo by: Jackson Van Kirk

Great Season Ends With Loss To West Virginia At NCAA's

3/16/2018 7:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery (Jackson Van Kirk)Photo Gallery (Dave Winder)Final Season Stats

The Murray State Racers took on the 18^th ranked West Virginia Mountaineers Friday at the NCAA Tournament in the East Region and came away with an 85-68 defeat at Viejas Arena in San Diego, California. The No. 12 seed Racers (26-6) were looking for an upset over the No. 5 Mountaineers (25-10), but trailed by 11 points at the half and then were outscored 47-39 in the second half.

In their last games in the Blue and Gold of Murray State, Terrell Miller, Jr., and Jonathan Stark made their 55th consecutive start and end their MSU careers with 128 starts combined. On their final game of the season, after giving Racer Nation 26 wins, plus the Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles, they bowed out in different ways. Miller set the Murray State rebound record for the NCAA Tournament when he pulled in 17, while adding a season-best 27 points. Miller hit 8-of-11 from the field and was 5-of-8 from the 3-point line and hit 6-of-7 from the free throw line. Stark, the OVC's leading scorer for a second-straight season, came into the NCAA game averaging 21.8 points per game. West Virginia, one of the top defensive teams in the nation made it very difficult on him to score. Stark ended with nine points on 1-of-12 shooting including 1-of-10 from the 3-point line. He was perfect (6-of-6) from the free throw line and dished out four assists.

MSU's second double-digit scorer was freshman Ja Morant who had 14 points. 36604

Miller grabbed the first eight rebounds of the game for the Racers and they trailed 11-9 early, just after Morant's three-point play gave MSU a 9-8 lead at the and then took their first lead at 11:56 mark. Stark, who was 0-of-8 to start the game, hit his first field goal at the 4:05 mark, but the Racers were down 27-20. Miller hit his second 3-pointer of the half with 1:02 left to cut the Mountaineers lead to 32-27, but the Racers went into the intermission behind 38-29.

In the second half, the Racers made a run when they cut the lead to 49-44 with 14:41 remaining on baskets by Miller, who hit three shots in a row and Shaq Buchanan. But the Racers never got any closer. WVU had a 9-0 run and then led 64-52 with 7:06 left.

Game Notes
Miller's MSU NCAA Record 17 rebounds surpassed the great Popeye Jones who had 15 rebounds in MSU's famous near upset of Michigan State in 1990 in Knoxville, Tennessee. That game is still today the only time a No. 16 seed has taken a No. 1 seed into overtime. Miller's 27 points is second all-time for the Racers in the NCAA Tournament behind only Popeye Jones who had 37 points in the game with Michigan State.

Terrell Miller started the day only 15 points from reaching the magical mark of 1,000 career points with Murray State. In doing so, he's the 21^st Racer to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds. He finished the day with 1,012 points.

Miller set the MSU record for the NCAA Tournament to single-game field goal percentage at .727 on 8-of-11 from the field. The former mark was set in 1969 by Hector Blondet against Marquette when he hit 70 percent on 7-of-10 shots.

Miller's five made 3-point shots was one off the team record of six by Frank Allen against Arkansas in 1992.

Jonathan Stark (1,399) started the day 19^th all-time at MSU in career scoring. (18^th Jeffery Moss (12-16) 17^th 1,409, Don Mann (85-89) 1,449). He finishes his MSU career with 1,408 points.

Stark's season scoring total was 685, just behind sixth place Cameron Payne (14-15) 707, and fifth place DT Mayes (97-98) 711) for a single-season at MSU.

Ja Morant started the week the second ranked freshman in NCAA D-I with 6.4 assists per game, behind only Oklahoma's Trae Young at 8.1. Morant's rookie season has produced a team record for a freshman with (201) assists, also good for third all-time at MSU in a single-season behind only Cameron Payne (14-15) 209 and Chad Townsend (96-97) 212.

With three blocked shots against WVU, Morant tied MSU's record for the NCAA Tournament as he matched the three that Danero Thomas had against Vanderbilt in 2010.

MSU's 13-game winning streak was stopped. It was second in the nation behind only Gonzaga who pushed their streak to 15 on Thursday with a win over UNCG.

The Racers were looking for their first win over a ranked opponent since that famous game at the CFSB Center in 2012 when Dick Vitale was in the house for No. 9 Murray State against No. 21 Saint Mary's.

Today marked the Racers' 13^th game in the state of California since 2003. During that time they're 3-10.

Recent Murray State Games In California

Date	Opponent	H/A/N	W/L	Score
11-28-04	1UC Davis	N	W	66-43
11-29-04	1Saint Mary's	N	L	62-75
11-11-06	2Seattle-Pacific	N	L	84-87
11-12-06	2Saint Mary's	N	L	44-62
11-09-09	3California	A	L	70-75
03-18-10	4Vanderbilt	N	W	66-65
03-20-10	4Butler	N	L	52-54
11-25-10	5Stanford	N	W	55-52
11-26-10	5UNLV	N	L	55-69
11-28-10	5Oklahoma State	N	L	49-66
11-26-13	Saint Mary's	A	L	64-89
03-16-18	6West Virginia	N	L	68-85

1 – Shamrock Classic, Moraga, Calif.
2 – Shamrock Classic, Moraga, Calif.
3 – Season Opener, Berkeley, Calif.
4 – NCAA Tournament, San Jose, Calif.
5 – 76 Classic, Anaheim, Calif.

The Racers held WVU to 18 percent shooting to start the game on 3-of-16, but the Mountaineers got it going the rest of the way in shooting 63 percent on 29-of-46.