The Murray State Racers came away with a 71-45 win Saturday over the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at the Eblen Center in Cookeville.
The Racers improved to 13-4 overall and 5-1 to keep a share of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference. MSU stays on the road next week with games at Belmont on Thursday and at Tennessee State on Saturday (Jan. 20).
Jonathan Stark led the Racers in scoring for the seventh-straight game with a game high 18 points, while Terrell Miller, Jr., added 15 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Ja Morant scored 13 points.
In handing Tech its first home loss of the season, the Racers started fast in hitting 9-of-14 shots to build a 22-6 lead, their largest of the half. Morant helped kick-start the Racers with 11 points in the first seven minutes of the game. The Racers blistered the nets for 57 percent from the field (15-of-26) in the half and dominated the boards 23-7.
Leading 37-23 at the intermission, the Racers saw TTU get as close as 10 with 15:12 left when it was 41-31. Miller and Stark hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead back to 16 (48-32) at the 13:13 mark. MSU put the game away with a brilliant showing on both ends of the floor. After a Byron Hawkins 3-pointer, Jalen Dupree blocked a shot which led to an alley oop dunk by Morant for a 64-45 lead with 2:11 left.
The stat sheet showed a dominant night for Murray State. They held TTU to 40 percent from the field (21-of-52) and won the rebound stat 38-21. On offense, the Racers hit 58 percent (27-of-50) including (8-of-22) from the 3-point line. Tech was 1-of-16 from long range.
The 71-45 final pushed the Racers to 4-2 on the road this season and it sealed a split of their first OVC road trip, which started with a 76-71 loss Thursday at Jacksonville State.
Game Notes
The Racer now lead the all-time series with TTU (127-49) and are (47-37) at TTU. Game two with the Golden Eagles is at the CFSB Center (Feb. 17).
Terrell Miller continues his run to be the 44th member of the MSU 1000-Point Club. With 15 points scored tonight, he now has 784 points in 50 games at MSU. Jonathan Stark joined the club (Jan. 6) and has 1,055 and is tied for 36th on the MSU all-time list with Jarvis Williams (2013-15).
The Racers have won the rebound stat in 12 of their 13 wins this season.
Jalen Dupree was a force around the rim tonight and had three blocked shots.
The unpredictable nature of the OVC regular season title race certainly showed on Saturday. Only one home team in five games was able to defend its home court. SIUE defeated Tennessee State 82-79 in Edwardsville as the only home team to win. In the other four games, the road team won including the Racers at TTU, EKU at SEMO, Belmont at EIU and Morehead State at UTM.
Belmont 75, @Eastern Illinois 66
Eastern Kentucky 91, @Southeast Missouri 86
Austin Peay 87, @Jacksonville State 67
Morehead State 71, @UT Martin 67
@SIUE 82, Tennessee State 79
Murray State 71, @Tennessee Tech 45
The Racers have a share of first place in the OVC at 5-1 with Austin Peay and Belmont.
MSU’s Thursday game at Belmont is a 6 p.m. tip at the Curb Events Center in Nashville, Tenn., and aired by ESPNU. Dave LaMont and Adrian Branch will be on the call.
Dave Winder – Department of Athletics – Murray State ​State University​
Associate AD – Media Relations
