Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
Murray State bounced back from a tough road loss to Morehead State, taking down an OVC powerhouse in Eastern Kentucky and putting on a show offensively en route to a 76-64 win.
The Racers wasted no time attacking the Colonels on the offensive end, jumping to a 6-7 start from the field and taking a 12-7 lead five minutes into the game.
Murray State went one of its next five shot attempts, but still managed to hold onto a 17-14 lead. Sophomore guard Chico Carter Jr. made the most of his first start of the season, scoring seven of the 17 on 3-3 shooting.
EKU wasn’t bowing out, with an impressive offensive performance of their own coming from a big-man duo in sophomore forward Michael Moreno and junior forward Tre King. The two combined for 16 points of the Colonels’ 22, but still found themselves trailing Murray State 26-22.
Even foul trouble couldn’t halt the Racers’ offense as they walked into the locker room shooting 58.6% from the field, while going 5-10 from deep. This marksmanship helped Murray State head into the second half owning a 39-30 lead.
EKU looked to make up ground quickly to start the second half, snagging an offensive outburst in the form of a 6-10 clip from the field. The Racers remained out in front though, holding a 47-43 lead with 14:46 left to play.
The Colonels continued to hang around thanks to King, Moreno and freshman guard Wendell Green Jr. combining for 45 of the team’s 50. Only two other EKU players had scored up to that point and they found themselves still just behind Murray State, 56-50 with 11:53 left to play.
Minutes later, the Racers went on a 7-0 run to take a 63-50 lead and never looked back. EKU couldn’t cut Murray State’s lead to single digits following the run and the Racers were able to walk away with a big 76-64 victory.
Bouncing back from a tough loss to Morehead State, Head Coach Matt McMahon was pleased with the resiliency and poise his team played with against the Colonels.
“We built this program on great players,” McMahon said. “But the second piece of that and just as important is our program has been built on hard work, toughness and unselfishness. And I thought you saw those things at the level they need to be today and that’s why we were able to have a lot of success on the floor.”
One player who’s shown true grit time and time and again is Carter Jr., who capitalized his first start this season with 23 points on 9-14 shooting while going 3-6 from deep.
“I feel like I’m putting in a lot of work off the court, which translates on the court to scoring and assisting to my teammates.” Carter Jr. said. “I feel like it’s just all the work I’ve put in off the court paying off.”
Defensively, the Racers only allowed three Eagles to score in double figures, and kept every other player under six points. Carter Jr. said they wanted to stay in their gaps and try to force tough shots and McMahon thought they did just that.
“We were committed to trying to do a good job of making them take tough shots,” McMahon said. “We were trying to be really dialed in defending the three-point shot. These guys are hitting 13, 15, 16 a game, it’s incredible. We wanted to try and force some tough twos, you know with King another great talent. I thought we were able to force some tough shots… I thought it was a really disciplined defensive approach from our players.”
Murray State has been playing some of its best basketball recently, with the team seeming more connected than ever. While the Racers got off to a rough start, McMahon is thrilled that his team has continued to fight and improve each game.
“We’re playing much better basketball,” McMahon said. “Our assists total is way up, our turnover numbers are way down. This might be the first time tonight against a good opponent where we won the free throw line. That’s been an area where we really struggled… Credit to our guys. Obviously nobody wants to be overall what our record is, but you gotta stay the course, you gotta keep building your team, you gotta keep trying to get better and make improvements and see if we can’t build on this great win today.”
The Racers will return home after a big win for the first of five games in ten days, taking on SEMO at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11, at the CFSB Center.
