Racers Start Slow in Loss at Missouri State

Saturday, February 1

Springfield, MO.

2 p.m.

Murray State

11-12,5-7MVC

Missouri State

8-15,1-11MVC

Murray St.

Missouri St.

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

2/1/2025 6:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Murray State comes home Tuesday to host the Drake Bulldogs

The Murray State Racers dropped a 77-56 defeat Saturday to the Missouri State Bears at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield.

The Racers (11-12) are 5-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they return to the CFSB Center to host Drake on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Four Racers tallied double-figures including AJ Ferguson and JaCobi Wood with 11 points and 10 each from Kylen Milton and Alden Applewhite.

The Bears hit the Racers with a 20-8 run that ended with a 32-10 lead at 5:47 of the first half. Murray State's offense struggled to 8-of-25 from the field for 32 percent, in including 0-of-8 from the 3-point line as they trailed Missouri State 43-19 at the intermission.

An 11-0 run that featured seven-straight points from Wood drew the Racers to 16 points of the Bears (53-37) with 13:02 remaining, but MSU never got any closer in falling to 4-6 away from home this season.

Game Notes

Today's game marked the final meeting in The Valley between the Racers and Bears, as Missouri State is leaving the MVC in the summer to join Conference USA.
The Bears are the first team this season to hit double-digit 3-pointers on the Racers, the Bears hit a season-high 12 today.
Alden Applewhite achieved the 500 career points mark with 10 points today.
Applewhite has 509 points in 77 career games with Mississippi State, Portland and the Racers.
Ferguson scored 11 points today and now has 835 points in 88 games between East Central (OK), Southern Illinois and the Racers.
Harcum's five steals today is a new career high for him, topping the three steals he had vs Coastal Carolina (Jan. 20, 2024) and at Texas State (Feb. 7, 2024).
The Racers forced the Bears into a season-high 20 turnovers, but committed 17 of their own, above their season average of 11.6 per game.
Since winning back-to-back road games at Drake and UNI (Jan. 5 & 8), the Racers are 2-4 and dropped road games this week at Evansville and Missouri State.
After the Drake game on Tuesday, the Racers play Saturday at Valparaiso in a 3 p.m. tip.
The game marked the 1000^th for Murray State's Eric Fredrick, the Racers' lead Athletic Trainer.
Since the early 1990's, Frederick has worked 33 seasons with MSU seven head coaches including: Scott Edgar, Mark Gottfried, Tevester Anderson, Mick Cronin, Billy Kennedy, Matt McMahon and Steve Prohm.