Racers Win 7th Straight - 55-44 over Tennessee Tech - Murray State University Athletics

Thursday, February 10

CFSB Center

7:30 p.m.

Murray State

Tennessee Tech

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Racers Win 7th Straight - 55-44 over Tennessee Tech

2/10/2011 11:36:52 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Murray State Racers earned a hard-fought 55-44 win over Tennessee Tech Thursday at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

The win enabled the Racers to keep their first place spot in the Ohio Valley Conference at 11-3 as they moved their overall mark to 19-3 and stretched their current win streak to a season-best seven straight.

The Racers played a stellar defensive game in holding the Golden Eagles to 32 percent shooting on the night and 0-of-7 from three-point range, marking the first time MSU held an opponent to zero threes since 1989 when they did it to Middle Tennessee.

MSU also held TTU's Kevin Murphy to two points, far below the 31 he scored against them in the first meeting between the two.

After pushing ahead 18-5 only seven minutes into the game, MSU's offense stalled when they scored but two field goals the rest of the half for a 24-18 lead.

MSU put together a 12-6 to start the second half to go up by 10 with 10:16 remaining on a basket by Ivan Aska who got the start in the game and finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.

The Racers put the game away with 2:50 left when Aska got a dunk off an inbounds play for a 52-36 lead.

Isaiah Canaan led the way for MSU with 13 points, while B.J. Jenkins and Isacc Miles each tossed in 10.

MSU had 10 steals for the 11^th time this season and won the rebound battle 38-31.

NOTES

The 18 points MSU held TTU to in the first half was one off the season low for an opponent. MSU held East Tennessee State to 17 in the season opener (Nov. 15). MSU also held Stanford (Nov. 25) to 18 in the first half.

When the Racers held TTU to 0-of-7 from three-point range, it marked the first time since Jan. 30, 1989 that MSU had held an opponent scoreless from behind the arc, a span of 660 games.

The Racers have won a season-high seven straight with wins over Southeast Missouri, SIUE, UT Martin, Tennessee State, Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois and now Tennessee Tech. MSU's all-time best winning streak was the 17-game run the Racers had last season.

MSU recorded their sixth wire-to-wire victory in this game with five coming against NCAA D-I squads. The others are: Stanford (Nov. 25), Chattanooga (Dec. 11), SE Missouri (Jan. 22) and UT Martin (Jan. 29).

MSU's record in the CFSB Center is now 155-27 (.851) overall and 95-18 (. 840) in OVC games. MSU is 57-11 (.838) in Billy Kennedy's five seasons including 24-2 (.961) in the last two seasons.

MSU won't got on the road until Wednesday, but has quietly built an eight-game road winning streak. The all-time best streak at MSU is 13 in the 1998-99 season.

The Racers stay at home Saturday to host Jacksonville State in a 7:30 p.m. tip. MSU has never lost to JSU at home in six games since the Gamecocks joined the OVC in 2004. MSU won the first meeting this season 71-62 (Jan. 13). MSU leads the all-time series with JSU 14-0.