Morant Thrives, Racers Advance With NCAA Win Over Marquette

Thursday, March 21

Hartford, Conn.

3:20 p.m.

Murray State

28-4

Marquette

24-10

Murray St.

Marquette

Photo by: Jenny Rohl-Murray State Athletics

Morant Thrives, Racers Advance With NCAA Win Over Marquette

3/21/2019 9:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Murray State Racers made history Thursday when they posted their fourth victory in the NCAA Basketball Tournament when they took down the Marquette Golden Eagles, 83-64, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Ja Morant made history as well by becoming the 12th player to record a triple-double in the NCAA tournament with 17 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds.

He is now also the eighth player to compile a triple-double using points, rebounds and assists. Other player to record an NCAA tournament triple-double, according to Sports-Reference.com, including Oscar Robertson, Draymond Green, Magic Johnson, Cole Aldrich, B.H. Born, David Cain, Artis Gilmore, Gary Grant, Andre Miller, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.

In the first half, the Racers took the early lead when they hit four of their first five attempts from the 3-point line. Tevin Brown and Shaq Buchanan each hit a pair and the Racers jumped in front 20-10 with 12:49 left in the first half.

Marquette turned the tables and made their own run to tie it at 20-20 with 9:48 left, but Brown it his third-consecutive three to put the Racers in front again 23-20 at 9:48. However, the Racers made their next nine points from the free throw line to lead Marquette 30-27 with 4:54 left when Morant hit a pair.

The Murray State lead doubled at the 4:16 mark when Morant found Brown for his fourth-straight three and a 33-27 lead. Morant ended the half by sending a perfect lob to the rim for a Devin Gilmore dunk and a buzzer 3-point to put the Racers in front at the intermission 42-35.

In the second half, it was all Racers. Murray State locked down Marquette in the second half by limiting the Golden Eagles to just field goals. Offensively for Murray State, after knocking down nine 3-pointers in the first half, they only sank one in the second. However, that did not deter the Racers from scoring as they went 17-for-32 from the floor in the half.

Murray State finished the game with a near 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio with 23 assists and just 12 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles also turned the ball over 12 times, but had just six assists.

Tevin Brown led Murray State in the game with 19 points including finishing the game at 5-for-9 from beyond-the-arc after going 4-for-4 in the first half. KJ Williams followed with 16, while Shaq Buchanan added 14 and Darnell Coward had a near double-double with nine points and eight rebounds.

Murray State now advances to the second round Saturday where it will take on fourth-seeded Florida State at a time to be announced late Thursday or early Friday.

For more highlights of NCAA March Madness, visit NCAA.com

Game Notes
The win for the Racers is their fourth in 17 appearances and first since they defeated Colorado State in 2012.

Since 2010, the Racers have won three of their last five games in the NCAA Tournament with wins over Vanderbilt (2010), Colorado State (2012) and Marquette (2019).

The Racers are a No. 12 seed for back-to-back seasons and it's tied for their third-lowest seed in their NCAA history. MSU's best seed was No. 6 in 2012 and No. 9 in 1998.

MSU just missed getting a win over a ranked opponent, but Marquette fell out of the top-25 this week.

Ja Morant now has three triple-doubles this season, tops in NCAA D-I. His first this season was against Missouri State at home (Nov. 24) when he had 29 points/13 rebounds/12 assists. His second was at home (Feb. 28) at Morehead State when he had 11 points/10 rebounds/10 assists. His line today against Marquette was 17 points/11 rebounds/16 assists.

MSU set a few program NCAA records in the win. They shot .536 from the field on 30-of-56 and topped the previous mark of .500 against Marquette in 1969 (26-of-52) and North Carolina State in 1988 (29-of-58). MSU set their record for holding an opponent to its lowest shooting percentage at .324 (24-of-74). The old record was .360 against Butler in 2010 (18-of-50).

Morant's 16 assists is second all-time in any game at MSU and tops in the NCAA Tournament. The previous record for the Racers was eight assists by MSU Hall of Famer Don Mann in 1988 against NC State.

KJ Williams hit 8-of-10 from the field for 80 percent, which is second on MSU's NCAA list. The top spot (for those with at least six attempts) still belongs to Michael Floyd against Rhode Island in 1998 when he was 5-of-6 from the field. Tevin Brown's five made 3-pointers is second all-time behind MSU Hall of Famer Frank Allen who hit six against Arkansas in 1992.