The Murray State Racers couldn’t keep momentum after a halftime lead and dropped an Ohio Valley Conference clash Thursday with the Belmont Bruins 79-72 defeat at the Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Racers fell to 13-5 overall and out of OVC first place at 5-2.
MSU returns to action Saturday with a 7:30 p.m. tip at the Gentry Center against Tennessee State in Nashville.
Led by Jonathan Stark’s 19 points, the Racers also got the 17th career double-double from Terrell Miller, Jr., on 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jalen Dupree had a career-high 13 rebounds to go with 12 points for his second MSU double-double, while Byron Hawkins came off the bench to score 15 points.
From the tip, each team found it difficult to score. The Racers were 0-of-8, while the Bruins were 0-of-3. Miller’s 3-pointer at the 17:39 mark made the score 3-0 Murray State. Miller made it a 10-5 MSU lead with another three at 15:40. MSU fell behind 22-16 at the 10:00 mark, but outscored Belmont 16-6 the rest of the first half for a 32-28 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, MSU led 51-50 after a Ja Morant 3-point basket with 12:20 remaining. That was MSU’s final lead when Belmont hit the Racers with a 12-2 run to grab a 53-62 lead with 8:08 left. Leading by four points at the 12:20 mark, the Racers’ shooting slumped and Belmont starting hitting. The Bruins outscored the Racers 29-11 the rest of the way for the 79-72 final.
Game Notes
The Racers now trail the all-time series with Belmont 7-6 and have lost the last four since their last win in 2015.
The Racers had a pair of 10-plus rebounders tonight. Dupree (13) and Miller (11) accounted for 24 of MSU’s 38. The last time MSU had two double-doubles was Dec. 2, 2015 at Houston when Bryce Jones had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Wayne Langston had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Dupree’s 13 rebounds surpassed his previous career-high of 11 from last season at UT Martin (02-25-17).
MSU won the rebound stat 38-32, but lost the game. The only other time that happened this season was against Auburn (Dec. 19)
Belmont’s 51 points in the second half was a season-high for the Racers to give up. The previous high was 45 at Illinois State (Dec. 9) but the Racers won the game 78-72.
Terrell Miller is also making a push to get to the MSU 1000-Point Club as Stark did at the first of January. Miller scored 16 points tonight and now has 800. He’ll become the 44th member of this exclusive club at MSU when he reaches the magic number.
Miller and Belmont’s Dylan Windler were half of the four players who entered the night in the top-10 in both scoring and rebounding in the OVC. Miller had 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Windler had 21 points and pulled down six rebounds.
The Racers stay in Nashville for a Saturday tilt at the Gentry Center against the Tennessee State Tigers. TSU is 8-10 overall and 3-3 in the OVC after today’s win at home to Austin Peay 70-56. The Racers lead the all-time series with TSU 52-17 and are 22-8 away. MSU won at TSU in 2015, but lost there a year ago 73-71. Saturday’s game at TSU marks the end of a four-game road swing at the start of the OVC season for the Racers. After the TSU game, MSU comes home next week to the CFSB Center for games with Morehead State (Jan. 25) and Eastern Kentucky (Jan. 27). The Morehead State game will be televised by ESPNU at 6 p.m. and the new video/scoreboard at the arena will also be unveiled.
Dave Winder – Department of Athletics – Murray State State University
Associate AD – Media Relations
