Racers Welcome Back Students With Win Over Belmont

Thursday, January 23

CFSB Center

6 p.m.

Murray State

14-5,7-0OVC

Belmont

14-6,5-2OVC

Belmont

Murray St.

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

1/23/2020 9:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Murray State Racers ran past the Belmont Bruins Thursday to remain in a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference after an 85-75 victory at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.

The Racers (14-5) moved to 7-0 in the OVC and host the Tennessee State Tigers Saturday at 7 p.m. MSU has won their last 16 regular season league games and have won their last eight this season. Additionally, the Racers have won 15 in a row at home. The game featured a fired up fan base in which it was the first event of the spring semester after MSU students returned from winter break. The largest crowd of the season attended of 6,023.

Tevin Brown scored a game-high 24 points and dished out eight assists, while Anthony Smith racked up a double-double with 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. The Racers'

group of five double-figure scorers also included KJ Williams with 15 points, Jaiveon Eaves with 13 and DaQuan Smith with 11.

Trailing 35-31 at halftime, the Racers were facing their largest deficit of the game of nine points (46-37) with 17:05 remaining when they turned the game in their favor. DaQuan Smith hit back-to-back threes to tie it 53-53 with 10:43 left. Smith hit another 3-pointer at the 6:51 to give the Racers a 62-59 lead.

The game was tied again with 4:26 left, when Eaves unleashed back-to-back 3-pointers in about a minute to push the Racers in front by five at the 3:43 mark. The Racers hit 6-of-9 from long range in the final 4:26 to get a 10-point win in a game that was much closer than that.

MSU had their best 3-point game of the season as they matched Belmont 12-12 and held a 42-30 edge on the boards.

Game Notes

The Racers and Bruins have a second meeting this season coming in Nashville (Feb. 6). It will mark the first time since Belmont joined the OVC in the 2012-13 season that the two have met twice.
MSU edges in front of Belmont in the all-time series, which is now 9-8 and 6-2 at home. The Racers have won three of the last four meetings.
MSU coach Matt McMahon is now 101-47 (.682) in his fifth season with the Racers and 57-18 (.730) in OVC play.
When the game was over and the handshake line ended, Murray State President Dr. Bob Jackson and Director of Athletics Kevin Saal surprised McMahon with a commemorative basketball for his 100^th win that came last weekend at Southeast Missouri. McMahon is the third-straight MSU coach to win 100 games.
The Racers have extended their home win streak to 15 since a loss in January 2019 to Belmont.
MSU used the same line up for a seventh-straight game as Tevin Brown, DaQuan Smith, Anthony Smith, Jaiveon Eaves and Demond Robinson made the start. This group is now 9-1 overall.
With 24 points tonight, MSU's Tevin Brown has 731 points in his 52-game MSU career.
Coming in, MSU was 0-3 when trailing at the half with losses against La Salle, Missouri State and Evansville. Their win tonight came after trailing 35-31.
Rebounding has been a strength for the Racers this season and thus, so has limiting the opponent's ability to get second-chance scoring. MSU won the rebound battle tonight 42-30 and gave up only nine second chance points. MSU now has 14 games this season of giving up under 10 second chance points.
Anthony Smith's 15 rebounds was his career-high, one better than the 14 he had against Brescia (11-16-19).
Here are the most recent games of a MSU player grabbing 15 rebounds
Anthony Smith (15) Belmont, 01-23-20
KJ Williams (16) Eastern Illinois, 01-17-19
Terrell Miller (17) West Virginia, 03-16-18
Terrell Miller (18) Jacksonville State, 03-02-18
Terrell Miller (15) Auburn, 12-19-17
Jarvis Williams (15) SEMO, 3-1-14
Jarvis Williams (15) TTU, 1-23-14
Jarvis Williams (15) UT Martin, 1-05-14
Jarvis Williams (18) SEMO, 1-02-14
Tevin Brown's eight assists is a career-high, one better than the seven he had against Middle Tennessee (12-7-19).
DaQuan Smith is heating up from the 3-point line. After his 3-of-5 effort tonight, he's 9-of-17 in the last three games.