The Murray State basketball team kicked off its Missouri Valley Conference schedule with an upset victory over the Bradley Braves as the Racers defeated the Braves 79-72.
Bradley entered the game with a 6-0 record, with wins over the University of Alabama-Birmingham and Utah State University. The Braves won the regular season championship in The Valley last year and lost to Drake in the championship game of the MVC Tournament.
Junior guard JaCobi Wood and senior guard Rob Perry led the way for the Racers with 19 points each. Wood discussed his scoring postgame. He said he had to flip his script and turn to shooting rather than facilitating.
“I’m really just trying to do what I can out there,” Wood said. “These guys help me do that. You can see that out there. If I need to be an assist guy, I’ll do it. If I need to be a scorer, I’ll do it. Just trusting the guys and getting wins like this is big for us.”
Senior guard Quincy Anderson spoke about the importance of the win for the Racers, as they had lost three straight games heading into the matchup. He said the Racers had to give them respect in order to earn the win.
“(Bradley) is a very experienced team,” Anderson said. “They won the conference last year. They know what they are doing over there, and that was the respect we had to give them coming in. At halftime we had a bit of a lead, but no one was comfortable… They’re highly ranked right now, and they deserve it. They win close games. It was just nice to get this one.”
Head Coach Steve Prohm added to Anderson’s comments, saying “the guys needed this win.”
“I’ve been around the game for a long time and I’ve seen good, bad and ugly,” Prohm said. “We’ve only played five games. We lost three games, all in the last minute. We gave one away, but you get what you get. I think everyone wanted to see how we would respond tonight. Our players needed a win like this to start conference play. But if you’re going to compete in this league, then all we did was take care of business at home.”
To end the night, the question was asked to Prohm about where the win takes the Racers moving forward. His response was just one word, “Tomorrow.”
Murray State improves to 3-3 on the season and starts conference play 1-0. The Racers head to Normal, Illinois, to play the Illinois State Redbirds for their second conference game of the year. Gametime is set for 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 3. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
