The Murray State Racers pushed their winning streak to four Saturday with an 80-59 victory over the Florida A&M Rattlers at the CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
Shaq Buchanan scored a season-high 21 points in leading a defensive effort from the Racers that held FAMU to 39 percent shooting for the game. Terrell Miller, Jr., scored 17 points including the first six of the game, while Ja Morant was one assist from a double-double with nine to go with 12 points. Anthony Smith had a productive 15 minutes and scored nine point, grabbed seven rebounds, swatted a pair of shots and posted a steal.
The Racers take next week off to concentrate on fall semester final exams before hitting the road for a pair of games. MSU plays (Dec. 9) at Illinois State and (Dec. 12) at Saint Louis.
Leading 25-19 at the 7:22 mark, the Racers hit the Rattlers with a 12-0 run to lead 37-19 with 2:20 left in the half. When Morant hit a 3-pointer with 2:02 left, the Racers had a 40-21 lead. After starting the game three of their first 11 shots, the Racers finished the half 14-of-24.
The Racers started the second half with the Morant and Buchanan show. Morant hit him on an alley-oop. Then they each nailed a 3-point shot to put MSU in front 52-31 17:12 left to play.
MSU’s largest lead came with 5:46 remaining at 74-48.
Game Notes
With the win, the Racers are 2-0 all-time with FAMU. The only other meeting was in Charleston, S.C. in 1988. MSU is now 7-0 all-time against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
The Racers are 4-1 at home this season and have won three in a row.
Upon checking the play-by-play after the game, it was revealed that Anthony Smith’s great stat line came in the 13 minutes be played in the second half.
The Racers are generally shooting well at the start of the season and making sure the opponent does not. After tonight’s results, the Racers are shooting 50-of-132 from the field for 37 percent and holding opponents to 30-of-113 for 26 percent. The Racers started the day 11th in NCAA D-I in field goal percentage and they were 71st in defensive field goal percentage.
Jonathan Stark and Terrell Miller continue their push to join the MSU 1000-Point Club. With nine points tonight, Stark now has 817 and Miller had 17 points tonight is up to 625. The Racer dynamic duo have played 38 games at Murray State.
Murray State signee DaQuan Smith, out of Holly Springs, Mississippi, posted 40 points Friday against West Beyer to surpass the 2000-point mark in his career at Holly Springs High School. Soon, he might become the all-time leader at the school. The current mark is held by Clevin Hannah (2003-06) with 2,300 points, who went on to play at Wichita State.
The Racers’ next opponent is Illinois State. The Redbirds are 4-4 after a 65-58 home win Saturday against Tulsa.
Dave Winder – Department of Athletics – Murray State ​State University​
Associate AD – Media Relations
