Racers Rally For Win At Tech - Morant Sets Assist Record

Saturday, February 2

Cookeville, Tenn.

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

17-4, 8-2

Tennessee Tech

7-16, 3-7

Murray St.

Tennessee Tech

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

Racers Rally For Win At Tech - Morant Sets Assist Record

2/2/2019 3:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Finishing the game on a 12-3 run, the Murray State Racers posted a 67-63 win Saturday over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at the Eblen Center in Cookeville.

The Racers (17-4) improved to 8-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and moved into a four-way tie for first place with Austin Peay, Belmont and Jacksonville State.

Ja Morant led the Racers with 28 points including scoring their final six points to go with seven assists, which made him MSU's single-season assists record holder as he surpassed the 22-year old mark set by Chad Townsend in the 1996-97 season. Shaq Buchanan added 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Devin Gilmore came off the bench to grab nine rebounds and block three shots. Four of his rebounds came when the Racers were regaining the lead late in the game. Darnell Cowart made his first start of the season and dished out four assists to go with six points and eight rebounds.

Coming out of the final media timeout with 3:14 remaining, a Tech free throw put the Racers behind 60-55. A Tevin Brown 3-point basket and a free throw from Devin Gilmore cut the TTU lead to 60-59 with 2:03 remaining. A missed 3-pointer by Tech led to a Racer fast break resulting in an alley-oop dunk from Morant to Buchanan to give MSU the lead for good at 61-60 with 1:31 left to play. Morant tipped in his own miss with 40 seconds left and he finished the Racers scoring by hitting 4-of-6 from the line.

The first half saw Morant and Brown hit back-to-back threes for an early lead and they led by as many as eight points after a Mike Davis three at the 6:23 mark. The Golden Eagles ended the half with a 15-4 run to get the lead 31-30 at the halftime intermission.

Game Notes
After the win over Tech, the Racers are 43-10 overall in the last two seasons and haven't needed to pull off the great escape they had tonight. Trailing by a point as the clock ticked under the 2:00 mark, it was just the fifth time since 2014 the Racers found themselves in that spot. The Racers found a way and ended the game outscoring TTU 8-3 for a 67-63 win. The last time MSU trailed at the 2:00 mark and won was at home against Evansville this season on Dec. 18, 2018. The Racers got the buzzer shot from Ja Morant for the 67-60 win. The other instances were at SEMO (2-14-15) where the Racers won in overtime, at home against EKU (1-29-15) where the Racers also rallied to tie and win in overtime and at Missouri State in the CIT (3-19-14) when the Racers came back to win 66-63.

The Racers' series with Tennessee Tech is their largest in games played with tonight being the 178^th meeting since the first in 1930. Murray State now leads the all-time series 130-48 and are 48-37 in Cookeville. The Racers have won the last four against TTU since a loss at the Eblen Center in 2017. This was their only meeting in this regular season.

The Racers are now 2-4 this season when they have trailed at halftime. Their other win was against Eastern Kentucky (Jan. 5) after they trailed 48-41.

MSU is now 12-0 when holding opponents under 70 points. They held Tech to 63 tonight.

Ja Morant set a new MSU single-season record when he dished out his first two assists tonight. The old mark had stood for 22 years when Chad Townsend had 212 assists in the 1996-97 season. Now with 218, Morant can chase down the OVC record of 255 by Duane Washington of Middle Tennessee in the 1986-87 season.

Morant is also making a run at the MSU all-time career assist mark. After the Tech game tonight, he has 419. MSU's record holder is Murray State Hall of Famer Don Man who recorded 531 assists from 1985-89.

Morant scored 28 points tonight and got closer to joining the MSU 1000-Point Club as he has 912.

The Racers return to the friendly confines of the CFSB Center this week with games Thursday and Saturday with Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville. Both game are doubleheaders at The Bank starting with the women's game at 5 p.m. The Racers won at EIU 83-61 (Jan. 17) and at SIUE 82-72 (Jan. 19).