Racers Drop Tight Decision at Evansville

Wednesday, January 29

Evansville, IND.

7 p.m.

Murray State

11-11,5-6MVC

Evansville

8-14,5-6MVC

Murray St.

Evansville

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

1/29/2025 10:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State Racers dropped a 78-74 decision Wednesday to the Evansville Purple Aces at the Ford Center in Indiana.

The Racers (11-11) are 5-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they travel to Springfield to play Missouri State Saturday at 2 p.m., before returning to the CFSB Center to host Drake (Feb. 4).

JaCobi Wood scored a career-high 29 points on 9-of-14 shooting including tying his career-high with six 3-pointers. AJ Ferguson added 19 points, while Terence Harcum added 11 points.

Leading 25-20 at halftime as each team suffered long scoring droughts, the Racers saw their lead slip away with four minutes into the second half.

In an amazing game of runs, the Racers survived a stretch in the first half of 5:30 in which they went scoreless and missed nine-straight shots. The drought ended with MSU cutting the Aces' lead in half to make it a 15-10 game at 12:30. The Racers then went on a 13-0 run and held the Aces scoreless for 10 minutes.

Game Notes

The game marks the first win for the Purple Aces over the Racers in six tries since the Racers joined the MVC in 2022.
After eight-straight wins against UE, MSU Coach Steve Prohm takes a loss in the series for the first time.
The Racers tied their season-long miss streak when they missed 9-straight field goal attempts in the first half, same as they did at Western Kentucky (Dec. 14).
On the other hand, MSU forced UE into 10 consecutive misses, just one off their best when WKU went 0-of-11 (Dec. 4).
MSU's previous season-high for 3-point attempts in regulation time was 27 vs Nebraska in Honolulu (Dec. 22), the Racerstopped that today in going 12-of-36.
MSu's 36 attempts from beyond the arc was more than the 30 they took against Charlotte in a double-overtime game (Dec. 23).
MSU entered the game No. 22 in the nation in free throw attempts at 23.9, but only took 18 today and have not reached 20 attempts in the last three games against Bradley, Belmont and UE.
The combined low-scoring first half was MSU's first combined score in the first 20 minutes since Arch Madness 2024 when the Racers and Missouri State combined for only 41 points.
Wood's career-high 29 points topped his former best of 24 points on four occasions.
Wood's six 3-point baskets tied his career-high that he had vs UNCW (11-20-23).
Wood's fell just short of becoming the first Racer to score 30 points in a game since KJ Williams scored 39 against Tennessee State (02-10-2022).
The Racers are home Tuesday to face Drake at the CFSB Center at 6 p.m. on a rare Tuesday game at the CFSB Center, a game aired on ESPN2.
MSU won the first meeting this season with the Bulldogs in Des Moines, Iowa (Jan. 5) 66-59.