Poor shooting in the first half saw Murray State managing to stay one step ahead of being two steps behind, the visiting Colonels, with their only lead being a 13-11 advantage with just under 11 minutes to go before the half. The rest of the period, the Racers managed to tie or come within a basket eight separate times before the break, but couldn’t quite pull ahead, going into the locker room down 32-38.
Racer standout Cameron Payne, had only 4 points on five attempts, and Senior Jarvis Williams led MSU scorers with 8 points.
The second half was more of the same with Murray just keeping pace with the visiting Colonels instead of setting it. To their credit, Murray never trailed their opponent by more than six points, and were able to pull it together when they needed it the most, with 5 minutes remaining in regulation., outscoring Eastern Kentucky 16-8 to get their only tie of the second half, with just 37 seconds left on the clock.
Going into overtime Racer, Head Coach Steve Prohm said he told his team that overtime is a good thing. “I heard on ESPN a former coach say that when you get to overtime, it’s great,” Prohm said. “That’s what I told the guys, they we battled back we’re here, we’re in overtime we should enjoy this this is fun.”
In the extra frame, Murray was able to open up their first lead of the game, 77-70 lead, with 2 minutes to go in overtime. It would be free-throw shooting that would account for the rest of the scoring for both teams, with Justin Seymore, T.J. Sapp and Payne combining for MSU’s final 8 points.
Despite the sluggish play, Payne and Williams finished the game with a pair of double-doubles, 21 points, and 10 rebounds, for Payne,all off of the defensive glass, with Williams adding 17 points and 11 boards of his own.
After the game Racer Head Coach Steve Prohm said, as far as takeaways from this game, he said heading into Saturday, there isn’t much to draw from.
“To me, the Eastern Kentucky game is a game in itself because nobody plays like them on both ends of the floor. “ Jeff, (EKU Head Coach Jeff Neubauer) does such a good job in preparation, and style of play, each possession is so important against him.” You almost take this game, watch tape and just move on, and have it for down the road in case you need to prepare for them in the conference tournament.”
But there is one thing he did learn in this game, good defense sets up good things for his team.
“The one thing we will take is that we gotta be good on the defensive end to win games,” Prohm added. “I thought that when we were good defensively and took care of the ball we did good things.”
The win extends Murray State’s winning streak to 16 games and helps them to remain undefeated, 8-0 in OVC play, heading into Saturday’s contest when UT Martin comes calling. Tip-off for that game is at the CFSB Center.
