Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
The Murray State men’s basketball team followed up a dominating performance with a foul-heavy and turnover-laden performance against Southern Illinois University, falling in the closing moments at 70-66.
The Salukis came out of the gates letting it fly from deep, forcing the Racers into two turnovers and quickly taking a 6-0 lead.
Along with lights out shooting from SIU, turnovers became a recurring theme for the next 38 minutes of play.
Murray State had six turnovers by the 12:52 mark and the Salukis had turned them into eight points off of turnovers to jump out to a 16-10 lead.
With whistles flying against both teams, senior forward Brion Whitley picked up two fouls in the opening minutes of the game. In need of a jumpstart offensively, he checked back in and drained back-to-back threes to knot things up at 21.
However, the Racers’ first lead evaded them, as SIU’s offensive clinic led them into the locker room holding onto a 40-32.
The Salukis shot 56.5% from the field to go along with a 58.3% clip from deep. SIU was able to do this in large part because of their disruptive defense, snagging 15 points off of turnovers in the first half.
The Salukis were led by a familiar foe of the Racers in former EIU Panther Ben Harvey, with the sophomore transfer guard combining with senior forward Anthony D’Avanzo for 19 of their 40 going into the locker room.
Meanwhile, the Racers found their leading scorers Whitley and junior forward KJ Williams with three and two fouls respectively going into the locker room.
Murray State’s typical leading scorer in junior guard Tevin Brown was also struggling, with SIU chasing him tightly off of screens, denying him the ball and throwing double teams at him to hold him to three points on 1-5 shooting.
Despite the many challenges the Racers faced, they weren’t going down without a fight. Foul trouble continued to plague them, but a 6-0 run had Murray State trailing 49-48 with a little less than 13 minutes to play.
For the rest of play it was a back-and-forth affair, with each team fighting tooth and nail. The Racers continued to try and will their way out in front by dominating the paint on the offensive end, while the Salukis offense came almost exclusively from the charity stripe.
With six minutes to play, sophomore guard Chico Carter Jr. got a layup to knot things up at 58. The following possession, Whitley tipped in the ball to give Murray State its first lead at 60-58 with 5:40 to go.
Whitley finished the night with 15, as the Racers second-leading scorer with a new career-high on the road.
“It definitely just took time to get adjusted after missing a whole year of basketball,” Whitley said. “I definitely was a little hard on myself at the beginning in the first few games and was forcing things, but I just realized I need to have fun and know it’s a process and trust the process. I’m just glad it’s coming along.”
SIU regained the lead at 63-60 with a three from sophomore guard Trent brown. The two traded the lead multiple times in the final 2:30 seconds, but ultimately, Murray State’s final chances wouldn’t fall.
The Racers last shot came with 18 seconds left to play, trailing 68-66. Brown rolled off a screen and hoisted up a three and tried to draw a foul, but the shot fell short and the Salukis secured the rebound and a 70-66 win.
SIU finished shooting 46.5% from the field to go along with a 47.4% clip from beyond the arc. The Salukis’ bread and butter was their ability to get points off of turnovers, winning that battle 22-14.
Whitley said it was the mental mistakes and turnovers that led to Murray State’s first road win eluding them for the second time this season.
“I think today we just had some mental errors out of timeouts,” Whitley said. “Coach would tell us something that’s going to happen and then we’d get in the game and not be locked in. Those are things at home everyone seems to be more locked in. You have your fans and you’re more comfortable where you’re at, but on the road that’s where you show if you’re a great team by staying locked in on the little things. Today we miscued on some things we shouldn’t have and it cost us, so we gotta be able to go on the road and focus more I think.”
A key factor for SIU as well was the 21-26 performance from the free throw line, that Head Coach Matt McMahon said ultimately decided the game.
“In the second half we limited them to seven field goals, which I would’ve hoped would’ve been good enough to win,” McMahon said. “But too many turnovers for us at the offensive end of the floor and I thought we had some good opportunities there, we just didn’t finish down the stretch of the second half.”
While their first road win eluded them once again, McMahon said it’s early in the season and that they have just have to continue to get better like they did this week and it’ll come.
Murray State will return home before an eight-game stretch with seven of them being on the road. The Racers will take on Transylvania University at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the CFSB Center.
