Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
After months of anxiously waiting by fans, players and coaches alike, Murray State men’s basketball returned to the floor of the CFSB Center for a record-setting season opener.
The Racers took on Greenville University after their first three games of the season were canceled because of COVID-19 and walked away with a 173-95 win, marking Murray State as having the fourth-highest scoring performance in Division I basketball history.
Murray State got right to work out of the gate. After trading buckets back and forth, the Racers grabbed the lead at 13-5 with a 9-0 run and never looked back.
Murray State, despite a few early blunders, flew through the full-court pressure and finished almost exclusively at the rim throughout the first half. Sophomore guard Justice Hill, who got the start in his Racers debut, played a huge part in breaking the press from the Panthers.
With nine minutes remaining in the first half, Hill hadn’t scored, but had grabbed five rebounds and dished out eight assists. Hill went on to finish the night with a near triple-double of seven points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in only 18 minutes of play.
Head Coach Matt McMahon said Hill’s speed and vision in the open floor was clearly on display and that he’s a newcomer who can make an impact right away.
Hill made his way to Murray transferring from Salt Lake Community College and he was thrilled to get the start and make an impact for the Racers.
“It felt good,” Hill said. “Knowing all the work I’d put in the summer before I got here and then of course the work when I actually got to campus, it felt good to know that it paid off tonight.”
Murray State continued to keep its foot on the gas in the practical track meet that was this basketball game, because of the “seven-second” offense that Greenville ran, shooting 81% from the field to hold on to a 64-27 lead at the eight-minute mark in the first half.
The offense kept coming and the Racers went into the locker room with a record-setting 87 points, breaking their previous record of 62 points in a first half.
This was the first of many broken records on the night, as Murray State finished with 10 players in double figures en route to a 173-95 victory.
The 173 total obliterated the previous single-game scoring record of 138 for the Racers and marked the fourth highest single-game total in Division I basketball history. Murray State’s 78 point margin of victory is also a new program best, eclipsing the previous record of 68 points.
Senior forward Devin Gilmore—who came off the bench and finished with a near double-double of 20 points and nine rebounds on 9-for-11 shooting—said it was exciting to finally get the season started after the previously scheduled games were canceled.
“It was exciting,” Gilmore said. “I was really excited to get to play our first games, but due to COVID some of our games got canceled and everything. So I was kind of down at first because I didn’t think that we were going to get to play tonight, because I thought that it was going to get canceled, but luckily with God on our side we got to play.”
McMahon shared Gilmore’s excitement to return to playing in front of Racer fans in the CFSB Center and said while the Panthers look much different than most teams they will face this season, they learned a lot from the monstrous win.
“We got a ton out of this game,” McMahon said. “The conditioning number one. We could not simulate the pace at which the game was played today… I think the fact that we haven’t had due to the rules this year an exhibition or a scrimmage and over half of our team didn’t get the opportunity to play for the Racers last year, so to get that first game under our belt playing here in the CFSB Center was important.”
McMahon said the depth the team has at its disposal is massive and that it was important to have all 14 players play double-digit minutes in the season opener.
“I do think that’s the strength of our team right now, is that we do six core guys from last year who accounted for right around 72% of our offensive production,” McMahon said. “So with not having any summer workouts and our fall being limited, I think those experienced players like Devin, Chico, DaQuan are going to make huge impacts on our team.”
Junior guard Brion Whitley is one of those returning players who got the starting nod from McMahon and staff after missing all of last season. McMahon seems to expect him to make an impact, as he has already in practice day in and day out.
“He earned the start clearly through his daily and consistent production in practice this fall as we’ve gone into November,” McMahon said. “I’m excited for him to be back on the court. He had a bad leg fracture last year that cost him the season and it was a frustrating rehabilitation process for him, but he was able to stay the course and it’s his fourth year in the program now and there’s a lot to be said for that.”
Returning players such as sophomore forward Demond Robinson, sophomore guard Chico Carter Jr. and junior guard Tevin Brown all finished in double figures, as well as junior forward KJ Williams who led the game with 22 points on 11-12 shooting.
Freshmen Dionte Bostick, Jackson Sivills, Nicholas McMullen and Ja’Queze Kirby all made their presence felt on offense as well, all scoring in double figures.
While it was a dominating performance for Murray State and McMahon was pleased with his team’s efforts, he said they still have a lot of things to build on.
“There were plenty of areas where we have to get better,” McMahon said. “Our defensive communication was very poor at times and Greenville had a lot to do with that with the pace of play at which they moved the ball up and down the court. But, we have to communicate better defensively and we can’t give up so many open three-point looks.”
Now McMahon and company will look to fix some of those areas before they get their first true test of the season in the Racers’ first road matchup with Middle Tennessee State University.
“We’ll make those corrections and really have to get ready for Middle, who, watching their first two games, their defensive pressure while it’s not trapping and in the fullcourt like we saw today, their halfcourt defensive pressure has been very impressive,” McMahon said. “They’ve got great size and length at every position and we’ll have to be ready to handle that in halfcourt on Wednesday.”
Murray State men’s basketball will return to action Wednesday, Dec. 2, hitting the road to take on Middle Tennessee State at 6:30 p.m. in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
