Story by Blake Sandlin
Sports Editor
bsandlin1@murraystate.edu
The much anticipated pairing of the OVC’s premier scorers in Murray State sophomore guard Ja Morant and Eastern Kentucky senior forward Nick Mayo didn’t disappoint at The Bank Saturday night.
While Mayo emerged as the victor in the scoring column, it was the Racers who got the job done in the win column. Despite falling into a 12-point hole with 18:58 in the second half, the Racers found a spark from freshman guard Tevin Brown and rode it to victory to secure a 97-85 lead.
After lowly 0-for-4 3-point shooting from Brown in the first half, Brown did a 360 in the second. The redshirt freshman hit four consecutive threes in the second half to give the Racers all the momentum they needed to execute a comeback. Brown finished with 16 points and four rebounds on Saturday night.
“I just had to get focused knowing that I’m a shooter, and shooters shoot,” Brown said. “I couldn’t stop, and my teammates helped me with that. The coaches were telling me what I was doing wrong, so when I came out I fixed it.”
Racer Head Coach Matt McMahon said Brown’s contribution fueled what would ultimately become the largest comeback win of Murray State’s season.
“I thought it was huge; I thought it gave us a spark and got the momentum back headed our way,” McMahon said. “I thought it got the crowd very involved. They were deep threes; he shot them from deep.”
Brown’s second half was complemented exceptionally by the play of his teammates. Five Racers finished in double figures on the night. Morant finished with 34 points, while Buchanan added 16 points.
Most notably was the showing from Murray State’s frontcourt. Junior forward Darnell Cowart and freshman forward KJ Williams added 16 and 13 points, respectively, to highlight the Racers’ 60 points in the paint. Williams also added 13 rebounds for his first career double-double.
For all the positives the Murray State bigs showed, they had no answer for the Colonels’ star forward in Mayo. Mayo had a game-high 36 points and added nine rebounds in the losing effort.
Eastern Kentucky pestered Murray State from the tip, executing heavy pressure and double teams which helped force 10 first-half turnovers by the Racers.
“It didn’t surprise us,” McMahon said. “We knew they play extremely hard. It’s a very organized press, even though they’re trapping a lot they do a good job with their rotations. We did not have the proper spacing that we needed in the first half. There were too many possessions where there were two guys standing next to each other and they were able to guard our two with one.”
The Colonels never trailed in the first half, but by the time the second half came around, McMahon’s team was ready.
“I thought in the second half our spacing was much better; our guys made the adjustment,” McMahon said. “Then we were able to get the ball centered once we beat the trap and play three on two, and I thought our guys made some good decisions there.”
With the win, the Racers improved their home winning streak to 18 straight and jump to 2-0 in the OVC, while dropping the Colonels to 0-2.
They’ll return to action against UT Martin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 10, in Martin, Tennessee.