Gage Johnson
Sports Editor
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
The Racers wrapped up its four-game road swing, grabbing win its second wins of the season against UT Martin and SEMO to hold onto first in the OVC and give Head Coach Matt McMahon wins No. 99 and 100.
UT Martin
Murray State men’s basketball got the better of UT Martin for the second time this month, winning its road contest with the Skyhawks in impressive fashion with a score of 84-62.
After their 89-76 victory over UT Martin on Thursday, Jan. 2, the Racers looked to do mirror its success at the Elam Center. Freshman forward Demond Robinson set the tone right away with a thunderous one-handed dunk a minute into the game.
The Skyhawks responded with a bucket of their own, but then Murray State went on a 7-0 run to take a 9-2 lead and UT Martin struggled to hang around with the Racers.
A three from junior forward Steve Wooten Jr. cut Murray State’s lead to 9-5, but that was as close as the Skyhawks could get. The Racers continued to control the game on both sides of the floor, taking a 43-24 lead into the locker room.
Head Coach Matt McMahon was pleased with the fact that Murray State was able to hold UT Martin to 30% shooting from the field, while holding them to 20% shooting from beyond the arc in the first half.
“That was something we put a lot of emphasis on this week,” McMahon said. “To be able to hold them to 24 [in the first half], I was thrilled with our effort. I thought were so active and the communication was great.”
The Racers were only able to outscore the Skyhawks 41-38 in the second half, but their first-half dominance was too much for UT Martin to overcome, giving Murray State an 84-62 victory.
Murray State’s defense stifled some of the Skyhawks key players. Sophomore guard Parker Stewart, senior forward Quintin Dove and senior guard Derrick Hawthorne Jr. have combined on average for 59 ppg in conference play, but were unable to do so with the team only earning 62 points total against the Racers.
“I thought that was the whole key to the game,” McMahon said. “I thought we had some terrific individual efforts, but I thought we really defended as a team for the most part.”
Murray State was also able to hold UT Martin to five offensive rebounds, 6.3 less than its OVC third-best offensive rebounds per game average of 11.3.
Sophomore guard Tevin Brown said that McMahon expects them to be a prolific rebounding team and they put that on display against the Skyhawks by outrebounding them 48-26.
“That’s something we go over every single day,” Brown said. “He wants us to be one of the top rebounding teams in the country and that’s something we try really hard to be that.”
Along with their rebounding performance, the Racers were able to control the play in the paint by outscoring UT Martin 40-34.
“I thought when we were able to get some good seals there against the zone, I thought Demond and KJ were terrific in creating angles,” McMahon said. “Then our guards did a great job of finding them. If you look at our three starting perimeter players, [they had] 15 assists tonight [and] only 5 turnovers. [That was] a huge key to the game.”
Murray State’s strong post presence opened up the floor for them, allowing them to dish out 21 assists to the Skyhawk’s eight.
“It’s such a fun group to coach because they work hard and they’ve been very committed to just getting better as a team as they season’s gone on,” McMahon said. “They love to share the ball offensively. I think we’ve really improved as a screening team. That’s leading to some easier baskets for us.”
Brown led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting, while dishing out 6 assists and grabbing four rebounds. Senior guard Jaiveon Eaves followed with 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting to go along with five assists and sophomore forward KJ Williams nabbed a double-double with 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting and 12 rebounds.
SEMO
After blowing a 17-point lead Murray State men’s basketball fought its way to overtime, where they outscored SEMO 18-13 en route to its sixth straight OVC win and Head Coach Matt McMahon’s 100th win.
The 96-91 victory moves the Racers to 13-5 overall and a 6-0 record in conference play, while also extending their winning streak to seven games.
Murray State jumped out to a big early lead after what had been a back-and-forth affair, going on a 19-2 to take a 37-20 with six minutes left in the first half.
However, the RedHawks bounced back with a 20-4 run to cut their deficit to 41-40 going into the locker room.
The Racers struggled to maintain their lead in a matchup with the Golden Eagles on Saturday, Jan. 11, and McMahon felt as though the same things that hindered them in that matchup did so against SEMO.
“It seemed like Tennessee Tech all over again,” McMahon said. “We build a nice lead there and then we went out and did our own deal and that isn’t going to work for our team. A lot of 1-on-1 play and poor decision making that put you in bad positions. I think they scored 15 points in transition off our bad turnovers and poor shot selection and that really hurt us there.”
However, when things seemed grim down four with 55 seconds left to play, the Racers wouldn’t bow out.
Sophomore guard Tevin Brown was fouled on the next possession and sank both free throws to make it a 78-76 lead for the RedHawks with 43 seconds left to play. After forcing a shot clock violation, Brown attacked SEMO’s defense and was fouled at the rim with one second left on the clock. Brown then sank both free throws to send the Racers with a chance to win in overtime.
“We knew they’d be in that soft pressure to slow us down, but we wanted to get the ball into Tevin’s hands as quickly as possible,” McMahon said. “We weren’t talking about the three. We felt like with the foul trouble where it was, we wanted to get to the bucket and score or get fouled and try and extend the game. Tevin made a great play, [then] he knocked [down] two clutch free throws.”
Brown finished by leading all scorers with 29 points on 5-for-11 shooting, all five makes coming beyond the arc, to go along with a 14-for-19 clip at the line and six assists.
As much of the game had been, overtime was practically a free throw contest. Murray State went 11-for-15 from the charity stripe—opposed to the RedHawks’ 7-for-11 clip—en route to a 96-91 win.
There were 64 fouls called with Murray State finishing the game at 27-for-40 at the free throw line and SEMO finishing at 25-for-50.
Rebounding was also a major factor in the Racers’ comeback win. Going into overtime the RedHawks had managed to score 13 second chance points, but in the last 15 minutes of the game Murray State kept SEMO from grabbing a single offensive rebound
After crediting sophomore forward Sage Tolbert with a solid night on the boards (16 points and nine rebounds), McMahon said that keeping the RedHawks off the offensive glass late played a huge part in their comeback attempt.
“Well I applaud the effort of Sage Tolbert,” McMahon said. “I thought he was a man on the glass. He chased every rebound and he definitely won the physical battle in the post tonight, which hasn’t happened often with our guys. We were able to start limiting them to one shot and I thought that was a big key for us being able to get back in the game and find a way to get it into overtime.”
Overall, McMahon was thrilled with his teams efforts after losing their early lead.
“I’m proud of our guys,” McMahon said. “Obviously we would’ve loved to when we got up 17 not have that meltdown there and let them back in the game, but I’d much rather learn from a victory than a loss. So I’m proud of the way our guys kept fighting and found a way to get a win in the end.”
The win marked No. 100 for McMahon, who now owns a record of 100-47 in the midst of his fifth season as head coach for Murray State.
Senior forward Anthony Smith said it was great for him and his teammates to claw back into and win this game to give McMahon this major accolade.
“We were turnt up in the locker room,” Smith said. “We were all happy for another to get coach McMahon his 100th win. It is well-deserved for him, [so] we were all excited.”
Smith followed Brown’s offensive performance with a double-double, scoring a career-high 22 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Sophomore forward KJ Williams followed with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting and seven rebounds off the bench, while senior guard Jaiveon Eaves added 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting.
Murray State will return home after its four-game road swing for the first of two matchups with Belmont, which will be aired on ESPN 2. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23, at the CFSB Center.