McMahon's 100th Win - Racers Outlast SEMO In OT - Murray State University Athletics

Saturday, January 18

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

4 p.m.

Murray State

Southeast Missouri

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

McMahon's 100th Win - Racers Outlast SEMO In OT

1/18/2020 7:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Murray State Racers pushed past the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks in overtime Saturday afternoon with a 96-91 victory at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The win extended the Racers' Ohio Valley Conference regular season winning streak to 15 games and gave Coach Matt McMahon his 100^th win in five seasons with the Racers.

The win kept Murray State (13-5) in a share of OVC first place at 6-0 and their pushed their current season win streak to seven.

This hard-fought conference clash between two rival teams produced a win for the Racers, but only after they rescued the game in the final seconds to reach overtime.

Trailing by four points with 55 seconds left, Tevin Brown made four-straight free throws hitting a pair with 39.5 seconds on the clock and another pair with .7 left. Sandwiched in between was a brilliant defensive possession in which The Racers forced SEMO into a shot clock violation.

In MSU's second overtime this season, Jaiveon Eaves started the extra frame with his only 3-pointer of the game for an 81-78 lead. After a SEMO miss, KJ Williams was fouled and went to the line where he made two for an 83-78 advantage with 3:40 left. When Anthony Smith made a three-point play, the Racers had started the overtime with a perfect 2-of-2 from the field and 3-of-3 from the line, plus a 4-0 lead on the boards. With 2:06 left, Anthony Smith hit Williams with a nifty pass in the lane for a three-point play and an 89-82 Racer lead. SEMO never got the ball back and a chance to tie the rest of the way.

Brown led MSU with 29 points which included 14-of-19 from the free throw line, while Anthony Smith added his sixth double-double this season on 22 points and 10 rebounds. KJ Williams scored 19 points on seven rebounds and Eaves added 13 points.

Game Notes
McMahon's 100 wins makes him the third-straight MSU coach to reach the century mark following Billy Kennedy who won 107 games in five seasons from 2006-11 and Steve Prohm who won 132 games from 2011-15. McMahon is the ninth coach in the 16 that have stalked the sidelines for Murray State in the program that first fielded an intercollegiate team in 1925. McMahon is the ninth-straight MSU coach to take the Racers to the NCAA Tournament and the sixth to take the team to two NCAAs. If McMahon's team this season can get to the NCAA again, he will join Steve Newton who took MSU to the Big Dance three times from 1985-91.

MSU's 15th straight OVC win in the regular season is the fifth-best streak in program history. MSU's all-time best streak was the 22 in a row by the teams from 1997-99 under Coach Mark Gottfried and Tevester Anderson.

Add in the two games that MSU won at the OVC Tournament last March and the Racers' haven't lost to an OVC opponent in 17 games.

MSU's overall win streak is seven in a row since their last loss (Dec. 21) at Evansville.

The Racers now lead the all-time series with SEMO 60-21 and are 31-10 on the road.

The game featured 64 combined fouls and it produced 75 total free throws.

The game marked MSU's second overtime test this season after they lost at Evansville 78-76 (Dec. 21). The game also marked MSU's third OT game at SEMO since 2014. MSU won here in double OT 118-115 in 2014 and again in 2015 in a single OT 94-92.

Brown and Anthony Smith each had a 20 point game which marked the 14^th time MSU had had two players with 20 points in the game since 2016. The last instance was against UT Martin (2-21-19) when Ja Morant scored 30 and Darnell Cowart added 22.

Congratulations @CoachMcMahon on 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ WINS as Head Coach💙💛#RacerTradition 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/tEPzlVI0ET
— Murray State Sports (@MSURacers) January 19, 2020