Junior forward Jarvis Williams put an exclamation point on the first half of the OVC season with a massive flying dunk in the closing seconds of Saturday’s game against Jacksonville State.

Junior guard T.J. Sapp ripped the ball away from Jacksonville State junior Darion Rackley with 20 seconds to play and immediately found Williams, who emphatically slammed it home to seal Murray State’s 73-65 victory.

“(Jacksonville State) makes you be really disciplined on the defensive end and take care of the ball,” Head Coach Steve Prohm said. “If you’re not locked in you’ll get beat. They played a terrific game and really forced us to raise our level at times. It’s really a great win for us.”

Murray State struggled with the Gamecocks’ pace throughout the first half. The Racers found themselves trailing by as many as eight points.

Strong play from Williams and junior forward Jonathan Fairell allowed the Racers to narrow the gap as the first half wound down. Senior guard Dexter Fields hit a heavily contested 3 as time expired to send the Racers into the locker room with a 33-32 lead.

“We really didn’t get off to a great start,” Prohm said. “We got down in a hole a little bit. We were able to really do a great job in the last four minutes of the half. Dexter’s shot was really huge going into halftime to go up one.”

The Racers dominated the boards and picked up the tempo in the second half. Murray State earned a 40-25 advantage in the rebounding department, which proved to be the key in the team’s hard-fought victory.

Though foul trouble kept him on the bench for much of the second half, freshman guard Cameron Payne came up big down the stretch. In the game’s final minute, Payne drove and rose up over his defender to drain a soft floater to extend the Murray State lead to five. The Gamecocks never recovered.

“That was a tough floater,” Prohm said. “That was a gutsy shot. (Payne) is all flash and you’ve got to live with it some. The floater was a big time shot. It’s just a good player making a really good play.”

The Racers now find themselves positioned well at the halfway mark with their lone conference loss thus far coming on the road against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Murray State has built up a three-game lead in the Western division and is one game behind rival Belmont for the top overall spot in the OVC.

Murray State’s road trip begins tonight in Clarksville, Tenn., as the team attempts to complete a season sweep of West division rival Austin Peay State.

The Racers and Governors are set to square off at 8 p.m. in Clarksville.

Story by Jonathan Ferris, Staff writer