Racers Blitz Valparaiso In Arch Madness Debut

Thursday, March 2

St. Louis, Mo.

6 p.m.

Murray State

Valparaiso

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

3/2/2023 11:02:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Racers had a season-high 24 assists in a dominating win in St. Louis.

The Murray State Racers made their debut at State Farm Arch Madness with a 78-50 win over the Valparaiso Beacons at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The rookie Racers who went 11-9 in their first season in the Missouri Valley Conference got the job done in their first postseason game in The Valley. Murray State advances to a 6 p.m. Friday game against the No. 2 seeded Drake Bulldogs in the quarterfinals. MSU is the No. 7 seed.

JaCobi Wood had his third double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 assists to lead the Racers to four double-figure scorers. Jamari Smith and Quincy Anderson each had their MSU career-best games with 19 and 18 points, while Rob Perry added 15 points.

The Racers broke to a 13-point lead at halftime after they hit the Beacons with a 12-2 run and held them to 33 percent shooting on 9-of-27 from the field. It was more of the same in the second half as MSU outscored VU 40-25 to cruise to the win and held the Beacons to 18 field goals and forced 19 turnovers.

Game Notes

The 2023 MVC Tournament marks the 47^th season of the event, the 33^rd consecutive year to be held in St. Louis and the 27^th in the Enterprise Center.
Wood now has 877 points and is chasing the 1000-point mark.
Wood has his third of the season double-double today. His previous two were against Tulsa (Nov. 20) 12P/11A and Bellarmine (Dec. 10) 11P/10R.
Smith matched his career-high of 19 points, same as he had against Saint Louis (Nov. 17) and Tulsa (Nov. 20).
Anderson scored his MSU career=high with 18 points. He previous was against Austin Peay (Dec. 16) with 16 points.
The Racers' 24 assists are a season-high. Their previous high was vs Tulsa (Nov. 20).
The Racers held Valpo to more turnovers (19) than field goals (18). It's their first against an opponent since 2022 vs Eastern Illinois.
Coach Steve Prohm is 3-3 all-time vs Valpo and has won the last three, all this season.
MSU held its opponent under 40 percent shooting for the first time in 16 games. The last was against Bradley (Jan. 4) at home when the Braves were 20-of-58 (.345).
The No. 7 seed is now 23-45 all-time in the MVC Tournament.
In MSU's first appearance at State Farm Arch Madness, they played in the Enterprise for just the second time.
The first was in 1996 when the Racers met the Saint Louis Billikens when the arena that was called Keil Center. (12-18-1996).

JaCobi Wood on the statement @RacersHoops made: "We just wanted to let everybody know that we're here to compete with everybody no matter who we play. We wanted to preach being a team tonight, playing together and that's what we did. That's why we got the win." #ArchMadness pic.twitter.com/D8DwBLLzNl
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) March 3, 2023

Rod Thomas doing the honors updating that bracket! We'll see you in STL Racer Nation!#GoRacers🏇🏀 pic.twitter.com/apFspXEYWt
— Murray State MBB (@RacersHoops) March 3, 2023