Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
As 2020 comes to a close, Murray State men’s basketball will head into the new year owning an 0-4 record on the road after a 68-55 loss to Belmont in its first matchup since the 2020 OVC Championship.
Both teams got off to a rough start offensively, but battled nonetheless throughout the first half. Belmont got out in front early with a 7-0 run to take a 10-3 lead through the first four minutes of play.
The Bruins remained out in front almost the entire first half despite offensive struggles that had them shooting 30% from the field heading into the second half.
The Racers grabbed their first lead at 25-24 thanks to a 9-0 run capped off by a steal from senior forward Devin Gilmore and a layup from junior guard Brion Whitley for his team-leading 10th point of the half.
Despite shooting 45% from the field, eight first-half turnovers plagued Murray State from building a lead before heading into the locker room trailing the Bruins 26-25.
Starting out the second half, it became clear that the game was becoming a tale of two halves, with Belmont controlling all momentum.
The Racers remained within a single-digit deficit for the first eight minutes of the second half, but once the Bruins gained a double-digit lead they never looked back.
In true Belmont fashion, a barrage of backdoor cuts led to easy layups and they were beyond offensively efficient, going 18-30 in the second half.
Head Coach Matt McMahon said Murray State’s defense wasn’t up to their standards in the second half thanks to not being entirely focused coming out of the locker room.
“Just poor attention to detail,” McMahon said. “I thought in the first half we were really locked in, we were really disciplined defensively and we were where we were supposed to be. For whatever reason in the second half, we continued to fall asleep, give up back cuts from the corner. We got beat on a couple curls. I thought our ball screen defense was not as effective in the second half as it was in the first.”
Meanwhile turnovers continued to be the Racers’ achilles heel on the offensive end, along with struggles from junior guard Tevin Brown who was held to 2-8 shooting for eight points on the night.
McMahon said it boils down to finding ways to give Brown space to operate or catch and shoot on the offensive end.
“I think we need to get him some better looks,” McMahon said. “We gotta be better screeners for him. We gotta get more stops in the halfcourt to where he can get out in transition… There’s no question we need Tevin to score for us to be successful, so I think that falls, from a coaching standpoint, finding better, more creative ways to try and free him up and allow him to flourish in our offensive schemes.”
Murray State also struggled from deep, only connecting on 5-18 attempts from beyond the arc. In the Racers’ wins on the season, it was their ability to create spacing offensively thanks to their play in the paint which opened things up for players on the perimeter.
McMahon said they have to convert those opportunities to succeed and that their play in the post was sloppy against the Bruins.
“I think it’s important to have good balance inside and outside,” McMahon said. “I thought especially in the first half when we moved the ball and screened and got multiple ball reversals, I thought we had some great opportunities. We didn’t convert as many of them as we needed to. You gotta have good balance. We got the ball in the post some tonight and we had too many turnovers in the post and too many shots blocked in the post.”
After Murray State’s dominating 87-57 win against Austin Peay, the Racers haven’t won an OVC game. McMahon said the team has to find some way to find consistency, specifically on the defensive end.
“It’s disappointing,” McMahon said. “I gotta look in the mirror. It’s my responsibility as a head coach to make sure that we’re prepared defensively, that we can sustain our defensive principles, our system and our philosophy that hasn’t changed in many years. And we haven’t been able to do that consistently to beat good teams, especially on their home floor.”
All in all, McMahon said the Racers have to improve in all facets of their game before they can snag a win on the road and take home another OVC win.
“The issue we’re dealing with right now is that I just can’t point to one thing,” McMahon said. “So all I know to do is we gotta get back to work. [We] really kind of reevaluate some things we’re doing offensively, defensively, personnel-wise and find some solutions so we can get better.”
The Racers will get the chance to get past .500 when they return to the CFSB Center to take on Morehead State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 2.
