Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
Murray State grabbed its third two-game win streak of the season in dominating fashion shooting nearly 60% from the field en route to an 80-60 win over Southeast Missouri State University.
The Racers got off to a slow start, going 1-5 from the field in the first five minutes of play, but were ahead 8-5.
Minutes later, Murray State looked like a completely different offense, fueled by sophomore guard Chico Carter Jr.
The Racers jumped out to a 19-13 lead with 9:26 left in the first half, going 8-15 from the field while holding the Redhawks to 33% shooting.
SEMO had gotten nearly all of its points from the bench at this point, with sophomore guard Jordan Love and senior forward Nolan Taylor combining for 11 of its 13 points.
The Racers were able to carry their offensive momentum throughout the half, as Carter Jr. had 10 points and had led them to a 33-23 lead.
Carter Jr. has become one of the biggest constants for Murray State’s offense over the past month, shooting 52% from three and becoming a guy the Racers can count on for double digits every night.
“It (the basket) looks pretty big right now,” Carter Jr. said. “I’m getting a lot of shots up off the court in practice and after practice and it’s converting to the game.”
Carter Jr. went on to finish the night leading all scorers with 22 points on 9-13 shooting while going 4-5 from deep.
Thanks to a 60.7% clip from the field, Murray State headed into the locker room holding onto a 42-30 lead.
SEMO did its best to try and hang around, cutting the Racers’ lead to 61-51 with just under 10 minutes left to play.
However, their efforts fell short, as Murray State’s blazing hot offense was too much to handle and the Racers came away with the 80-60 victory.
Along with Carter Jr. scoring in double figures, Junior guard Tevin Brown had a near triple-double with 15 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, while junior forward KJ Williams had 17 points and seven rebounds.
Defensively they were able to hold the Redhawks to 27% shooting from beyond the arc, something Head Coach Matt McMahon said they came in focusing on.
“Well that’s always been something we really believe in, defending the three-point line,” McMahon said. “About 40% of their shots are from behind the arc, so we knew that would be an important stat to defend tonight.”
The win moves the Racers to 10-9 overall and 7-7 in OVC. McMahon and players said after celebrating for exactly 15 minutes, Murray State now has less than 24 hours to prepare for their matchup with UT Martin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, at the CFSB Center.
“They’ll go right into treatment, get a good night’s rest and come in tomorrow,” McMahon said. “It’s good for us, it’s similar to OVC Tournament preparation. We’ll have breakfast and scouting meetings in the morning to prepare for UT Martin. We know they’ll throw multiple looks at us on the defensive end and they were fantastic against Austin Peay on Monday, so we’ll have to be ready.”
