Racers Win OVC Slugfest Over SIUE

Saturday, February 1

CFSB Center

7 p.m.

Murray State

17-5,10-0OVC

SIUE

5-18,2-8OVC

SIUE

Murray St.

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

2/1/2020 3:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State Racers posted their 11-straight win Saturday in a 74-55 victory over the SIUE Cougars and kept a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference Saturday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.

The Racers (17-5) moved to 10-0 in the OVC, while winning for the 21st time against league opponents and for the 18th consecutive time at home.

The largest crowd of the season of 7,512 attended and witnessed Racer great Ja Morant, at halftime, seeing his No. 12 retired and hung in the rafters at The Bank.

KJ Williams scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, while Tevin Brown scored 17 points to go with three assists. Jaiveon Eaves added 14 points and Anthony Smith grabbed 12 rebounds with nine points.

Leading 35-26 at the halftime intermission, the Racers found themselves in a 46-46 tie with 12:42 remaining after the Cougars started the second half on a 20-11 run. MSU responded with an 11-0 run to take a 57-46 lead at 8:35 on a basket by Williams. The Racers pushed to their biggest lead of 17 with 3:57 left.

The Racers outscored SIUE 39-29 in the second half and enjoyed having the lead for 36:55 of the game.

The Racers held SIUE to 31 percent shooting on 19-of-62, while the Racers hit 26-of-55 for 47 percent. From the time the game was tied at 46-46, MSU limited the Cougars to 1-of-17 shooting. After dropping the rebound battle to Eastern Illinois Thursday night, MSU came back to win this one 41-32 and limit SIUE to eight second-chance points.

Game Notes
With the win, the Racers have defeated SIUE in the last 12 games since the Cougars last win in 2014. MSU leads the all-time series 22-3 and are 14-1 at

home.

MSU coach Matt McMahon is 104-47 (.688) in his fifth season and 60-18 (.769) in OVC games. McMahon's teams are 61-11 (.847) at the CFSB Center.

As the Racers wrap up another 2-0 week in the OVC, Tevin Brown led the way. Against Eastern Illinois Thursday, he scored 24 points on 7-of-15 from the field, including 4-of-9 from the 3-point line and 6-of-9 from the free throw line. Against SIUE, he score 17 points and dished out three assists. For the week, Brown hit 49 percent from the field (11-of-24) and hit 8-of-15 from the 3-point line for 53 percent. He also made 11-of-15 from the free throw line for 73 percent.

KJ Williams also had an impressive pair of games by averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds. He was 14-of-22 from the field for 63 percent and he blocked three shots. In the EIU game, he scored 14 points on 6-of-7 from the field to go with nine rebounds and had the monster effort of 20 points and 15 rebounds.

Williams and teammate, Anthony Smith are on the list of recent Racers that have grabbed 15 rebounds or more in a game. Here's the list since 2014.

KJ Williams (15) SIUE, 02-01-20
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

The Racers managed to defend SIUE's leading scorer Zeke Moore who was averaging 15.0 points per game. Tonight he was 1-of-12 from the field and had four points.

After taking care of a four-game home stand with four wins, the Racers hit the road next week for games at Belmont Thursday (Feb. 6) and Saturday (Feb. 8) at Tennessee State. With week five of the nine-week OVC schedule now in the books, the Racers are tied with Austin Peay each at 10-0. Eastern Kentucky is 8-2, Belmont is 7-3, and Tennessee State is 6-4 for fifth place. The Racers and Govs are set to meet in Clarksville, Tennessee (Feb. 13) on ESPNU and in Murray (Feb. 29).