Racers Blitz UIC For Back-to-Back Wins

Tuesday, February 11

Murray, Ky.

7 p.m.

Murray State

13-13,7-8MVC

UIC

14-11,7-8MVC

UIC

Murray St.

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

2/11/2025 8:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

MSU is a half game from fifth place in the MVC

The Murray State Racers rode an outstanding defensive and rebounding effort to a 63-53 victory over the visiting UIC Flames at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky on Tuesday night.

The Racers (13-13) moved to 7-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference and host Northern Iowa Sunday at 4 p.m. in the second game of a three-game home stand at The Bank.

Kylen Milton and Terence Harcum led the way each with 13 points for the Racers, while Nick Ellington added 12 points and AJ Ferguson grabbed 12 rebounds.

Beginning at the 10:41 mark of the first half, the Racers put together their best run of basketball maybe since their win at Middle Tennessee in mid-November.

The Racers hit 7-of-10 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line for an 21-5 burst and a 26-14 lead at 3:40. Justin Morgan was particularly active with a 3-point basket and a tip-in.

MSU held a 24-17 rebounding edge and a 31-20 lead at the halftime intermission.

The second half saw the Racers regain their largest lead of the game at 14 points with 12:36 remaining, when Morgan and Ferguson grabbed offensive rebounds that led to a 3-pointer from Alden Applewhite to make it 44-30 Racers.

MSU enjoyed its largest lead of the game at 17 points with 7:01 left to play.

Game Notes

With the win, the Racers moved to 3-4 in MVC play at home with games remaining against UNI this Sunday, next Wednesday against Southern Illinois (Feb. 19) and Indiana State (Feb. 25).
Coach Steve Prohm is now 4-1 all-time against UIC.
Prohm records his 146^th win at Murray State and the 243^rd in his head coaching career that is in its 13^th season.
MSU's rebound margin of 13 is their second-best this season, just behind the margin of 15 they had at home against SEMO (Dec. 8).
MSU's 20 offensive rebounds is their season-high, besting the 14 they had against SEMO.
MSU gets its lowest field goal percentage for all D-I opponents this season as UIC shot 32 percent.
Coupled with the 35 percent they held Valparaiso to on Saturday, the Racers held the Flames and Beacons to a combined 37-of-110 for .336.
MSU has its first instance this season of holding the opponent to under 40 percent shooting in back-to-back games.
MSU has its first instance this season of three-straight games of free throw shooting of 72 percent or better (vs Drake 8-10, .800), (vs Valpo 12-13, .932) and (vs UIC 16-22, .727).
AJ Ferguson grabbed 12 rebounds today, his best at MSU in 26 games.
AJ Ferguson has 866 points after today's game in 91 career games with East Central (OK), Southern Illinois and the Racers.
Alden Applewhite made his first career start in a Murray State uniform tonight in his 46^th game with the Racers and the sixth start in his 80-game collegiate career between Mississippi State, Portland and Murray.
Applewhite's last start was more than two years ago when Portland played at UC Riverside in California on Dec. 22, 2022.
On that night in Riverside in 2022, Applewhite scored 20 points on 7-of-11 from the field (4-of-6 3PT) with four rebounds and three steals
MSU's three-game home stand continues Sunday at 4 p.m. when they host the Northern Iowa Panthers at the CFSB Center.
The Racers have the chance to sweep the two-game season series after they won in Cedar Falls 71-68 (Jan. 8).