Ellington's Double-Double Leads Racers Past Valpo

Saturday, February 8

Valparaiso, IND.

3 p.m.

Murray State

Valparaiso

Photo by: Valparaiso University

2/8/2025 4:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Nick ellington posted his fifth MSU double-double in the Racers' fifth road win of the season

The Murray State Racers won for the fifth time this season on the road Saturday with a 74-56 victory over the Valparaiso Beacons at the Athletics & Recreation Center in Valparaiso, Indiana.

The Racers (12-13) move to 6-8 in the Missouri Valley Conference as they come home Tuesday to the CFSB Center to host the UIC Flames.

Nick Ellington posted his fifth career double-double with the Racers on 17 points and 10 rebounds and a spiffy 5-of-5 from the free throw line and AJ Ferguson and JaCobi Wood gave the Racers three players with 17 points. Kylen Milton added 12 points to the MSU offense.

The Racers held the Beacons to 0-of-6 from the field at the start and hit eight-straight field goal attempts themselves with Ferguson scoring six-straight points for a 28-12 lead at 6:18. The half ended with Alden Applewhite stemming a Valpo 8-0 run with the Racers' fourth 3-pointer of the first half for a 33-23 lead at the intermission.

The Racers got Ellington heavily involved in producing a 12-2 run to start the second half. Ellington scored seven points in the run to give the Racers their first 20-point lead since the SEMO game (Dec. 8) at 45-25 with 16:30 remaining. The Racers' largest lead of 21 points came with 14:01 left at 51-30.

Game Notes

The win snaps the Racers' four-game skid and marks their fifth road win of the season.
MSU is 5-6 on the road this season with wins over Middle Tennessee, Drake, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Valparaiso.
The Racers are 2-1 at the ARC with wins here in 2013, 2022 and 2025, all under Coach Steve Prohm.
The Racers have swept the 2-game season series with the Beacons.
MSU has a chance to get two more season sweeps when they host Northern Iowa (Feb. 16) and Southern Illinois (Feb. 19).
Coach Steve Prohm is now 6-3 all-time against Valpo.
AJ Ferguson has 860 points after today's game in 90 career games with East Central (OK), Southern Illinois and the Racers.
Wood's four assists today gives him 401 in three seasons with the Racers as he moves into sixth place all-time at MSU in 89 games.
Wood is the sixth Racer in program history to reach 400 career assists.
The others are: Ja Morant (2017-19) 532, Don Mann (1985-89) 531, Lamont Sleets (1979-80) 458, Glen Green (1979-83) 423 and Tevin Brown (2018-22) 407.
The Racers hit eight-straight field goal attempts between the 12:29 mark of the first half to the 5:22 mark.
MSU's season-best shooting streak is still the 10 they hit in a row in their win at Middle Tennessee (Nov. 16).
In the first six minutes of the game, the Racers held the Beacons scoreless on 0-of-6 from the field.
When the Racers held the Beacons to 23 first half points, it was only two more than the 21 they held them to in the first meeting in Murray (Jan. 11).
It marked the fifth time this season, all in MVC play, holding the opponent to under 30 points in the first half.
The Racers snapped a streak of six-straight games giving up 50 percent or more shooting to the opponent as they held Valpo to 35 percent (21-of-60).
In records that date back to since 2004, Stathead.com reveals the Racers have had eight games of two players scoring 17 points, but never a game where three Racers scored 17 points each, as Wood, Milton and Ellington did tonight.
Ellington's double-double is his fifth with the Racers in his two seasons.
MSU has three double-doubles this season. Two from Ellington (vs UIC on Jan. 15 & vs Valpo on Feb. 8) and one from KyeRon Lindsay (vs MES on Nov. 20).
Ellington has two career double-doubles against the Beacons.