Gage Johnson
Sports Editor
With 1:23 left to play and the Racers up 76-72, sophomore guard Tevin Brown hit a fadeaway three as the shot clock expired to put the metaphorical dagger in Belmont’s hopes for a win and sent the CFSB into a frenzy.
“It was a play designed for me to come off the ball screen and kick to DaQuan but once I kicked to him he kicked it back to me and I just looked at the shot clock and it was going down, so I shot it,” Brown said.
Murray State men’s basketball came away with an 85-75 victory over the Bruins to move to 14-5 and 7-0 in conference play. The win also made it the Racers’ 16th straight OVC regular season win.
With both teams trading buckets to start the game, it was Murray State who kicked things into gear with an 8-0 run thanks to back-to-back threes and a thunderous dunk from sophomore forward KJ Williams to take a 17-9 lead.
The back-and-forth affair continued throughout the first half, until the Bruins took off on a 6-0 run to end the half and take a 35-31 lead into the locker room.
With momentum on Belmont’s side, they held onto the lead for much of the second half. It wasn’t until two consecutive threes from redshirt freshman guard DaQuan Smith put the Racers in position to take the lead tied at 53 with 11 minutes left to play.
Head Coach Matt McMahon said it was their toughness that allowed Murray State to flip the script in the second half and come away with a win in the 2018-19 OVC Championship rematch.
“I was proud of our guys for their response,” McMahon said. “I thought Belmont really out-toughed us in the first 24-25 minutes of the game. [We] really executed in the second half and found a way to get a win. So, [I’m] proud of our guys for their effort.”
Two made free throws from Williams gave the Racers its first lead at 55-54 with 9:38 left to play in the game since their 31-29 lead with 2:22 to go in the first half.
Once Murray State took the lead they never looked back. Belmont was able to stick around and make the score even two more times, but never was able to get past the Racers’ prolific shooting from the perimeter and stellar free-throw shooting.
Murray State was 7-for-11 from beyond the arc in the second half, finishing the game with a 57% clip with 12-for-21 shooting.
Brown said it was their work throughout the week that allowed the Racers to shoot so well.
“It’s just a lot of preparation,” Brown said. “We practice a lot of our shots in practice day in and day out and we know if somebody gets helped on too much we got open shooters that are shot-ready to knock down shots.”
McMahon also said that it was the team’s fluidity on offense that helped get those looks and knock them down.
“I thought it started with execution,” McMahon said. “When the ball moved and we screened better we were able to get in some more advantageous positions offensively. Then you still gotta step up and knock down the shot, so [the] guys hit some big ones and fortunately we were able to force enough misses to get the win.”
Murray State used being in the bonus at the 12:33 mark in the second half to its advantage, going 19-for-21 from the charity stripe after only taking two in the first half.
“It was big,” McMahon said. “I think it’s always important to make free throws, but you gotta get there number one. Then if you look at the score we were plus-fourteen at the line and we won by 10 points, so I thought it was very important.”
With their offensive efficiency, the Racers were able to claim an 85-75 when the buzzer sounded in the CFSB Center.
Belmont by no means made this game a cakewalk for Murray State, shooting 45.3% from the field and 41.4% from three.
Sophomore guard Adam Kunkel poured in 23 points for the Bruins on 8-for-15 shooting with four triples, while sophomore forward Nick Muszynski (19) and grad transfer forward Tyler Scanlon (12) also scored in double figures.
Muszynski is no stranger to big numbers for the Bruins. The 2018-19 OVC Freshman of the Year continued his successful season to this point against the Racers with a near double-double of 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting and nine rebounds.
However, McMahon felt as though they did as good of a job as you can trying to stop a player of that caliber.
“We just try and fight him and play as hard as we can against him,” McMahon said. “You’re not going to stop him, he’s too good, he’s too skilled. He can score with either hand. They do a great job [and] they run great offense. It sounds crazy, but you almost feel like you contained him at 19 and nine. What a great player.”
While Belmont did a solid job offensively, they’re well known as solid defensive team in the OVC.
The Bruins have the best scoring defense in the conference only allowing opponents 65 points on average and McMahon and the Racers knew they would have to be extremely solid offensively in order to come away with a win.
“It’s one of the many common myths of Belmont—that they’re just an offensive team,” McMahon said. “They’re by far by the numbers the best defensive team in our league. It’s not even close. So we knew we would have to execute very efficiently if we wanted to have an opportunity to score enough points to win.”
Murray State was able to soar past that average of 65 ppg and pour in 85 thanks to Brown (24), Williams (15 pts and 7 reb), senior guard Jaiveon Eaves (13 pts), senior forward Anthony Smith (13 pts and a career-high 15 reb) and DaQuan Smith (11 pts) finishing in double figures.
“We know we have a lot of options,” Brown said. “It’s not a one-man team. We have a bunch of people that can score, rebound and pass the ball. I think we’ll be very successful with this team.”
Brown did more than just hit threes from different area codes and break the ankles of multiple Belmont defenders in this game. The sophomore guard nearly had a triple-double, pairing eight assists and seven rebounds with his 24-point performance.
Brown also played all 40 minutes to put his yearly minutes total to 706 minutes on the year. That puts his average to 37 minutes a game and what he does in those 37 minutes a game comes as no surprise to McMahon.
“The secret’s probably out,” McMahon said. “He’s an elite player. He’s a dang good basketball player. He does a little bit of everything, he’s got 20 assists in our last three games, he’s very efficient scoring the ball, moves well without the ball, [is] a great perimeter defender and does whatever he can do to help his team win. I’m just lucky I get to coach him.”
This was the Racers first home game with students back in attendance and after the win Athletic Director Kevin Saal and President Bob Jackson took a moment to congratulate McMahon on his 100th win at SEMO last week as the cherry on top of the cake to the win over Belmont.
McMahon expressed his gratitude to them both for the commemorative basketball and the moment it provided for his family.
“Thank you to Kevin Saal and Dr. Jackson for that special moment after the game,” McMahon said. “I had no idea that was coming, but it meant a lot to me and my family.”
Murray State will now have a quick turnaround, as they look to go 8-0 in OVC play against Tennessee State on Saturday.
“It was a great win, but we gotta turn our attention to a really good Tennessee State team on Saturday,” McMahon said. “I just think coach Collins has done a great job and we have to be ready to go.”
Tip-off against the Tigers is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25 at the CFSB Center.
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