Racers Punch Ticket To OVC Championship Game

Friday, March 2

Evansville, Ind.

7 p.m.

Murray State

25-5

Jacksonville State

21-12

Jacksonville State

Murray State

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

3/2/2018 5:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Murray State Racers advanced to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship game with a 70-63 win Friday over the Jacksonville Gamecocks at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

The No. 1 seed Racers meet either the No. 2 seed Belmont or Austin Peay, the No. 4 seed as the two were set to play the late semifinal. Saturday's championship game is set for a 7 p.m. tip and aired by ESPN2.

Terrell Miller, Jr., had a monster game of 18 points and 18 rebounds to get his 10^th double-double of the season. He did it on 6-of-7 shooting, including making all four of his 3-point attempts. Jonathan Stark had a slow night, but still managed a game-high 22 points, while Ja Morant added 11 points and eight assists.

Talk about a tale of two halves. Indeed, it is truly never over until it's over.

In the first half, the Racers were brilliant Miller hit 3-of-3 from the 3-point line and had a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds in only 11 minutes of floor time. The Racers led 20-13 early and then 37-25 at intermission on 14-of-27 shooting for 52 percent and 7-of-12 3-point shooting for 58 percent.

The second half saw more of the same as the Racers built a 51-31 lead with 13:43 remaining.

JSU dug in and little by little, they chipped away at the MSU lead as the Racers went nearly 10 minutes without a field. While the Racers had trouble making shots, the Gamecocks had a 13-0 run to cut the MSU lead to 51-44 at the 9:54 mark. JSU made their comeback complete when they took their first lead of the game at 63-62 with 2:30 left.

However, this is when the Racers pushed back and finished off the biggest win of the season.

It was Stark's 3-pointer that gave the Racers the lead for good with 2:05 left at 65-63. After a defensive stop, Stark hit a pair of free throws for a 67-63 lead at 1:19. After they traded misses with JSU, Shaq Buchanan's tip-in with :20 left put MSU in front 69-63. After another JSU miss, Buchanan hit one more free throw to seal it for MSU in the 70-63 victory.

An amazing crowd of Racer fans made the trip to the Ford Center and really turned the game into a home-like atmosphere.

Game Notes
With the win, the Racers are 5-3 in the OVC Tournament since 2015. Overall, the Racers are now 68-37 (.647) all-time in the event and 2-0 against JSU. Their only previous meeting was also in the semifinals in 2006 when the Racers won 69-60 and went onto advance to the NCAA Tournament under head coach Mick Cronin.

Heading to their 27^th appearance in the OVC Tournament championship game, the Racers are looking for their 16^th title and first since 2012. MSU is 15-11 all-time in the championship and they've won 6-of-8.

Matt McMahon is now 4-2 in the OVC Tournament in his third season with the Racers.

The Racers have pushed their win streak to 12 in a row. It's the second-longest current streak in NCAA D-I. Michigan State pushed their streak to 13 tonight with a 63-60 win over Wisconsin at the Big 10 Tournament in New York. Gonzaga has also won 11 straight. They play Saturday in the West Coast Tournament Saturday against Loyola Marymount.

Terrell Miller's 18 points now has him with 974 in his two years at MSU. If Miller can reach 1,000 points, he'll become the 21st MSU player with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.