Murray State Takes Care of Chattanooga

Murray State 73
Chattanooga 62

Final from Murray, Kentucky

Game recap by Murray State:

The Murray State Racers pushed their home winning streak to nine Saturday with a 73-62 win over the Chattanooga Mocs at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky.

Starting the second half with a four-point lead, the Racers (9-2) used a 9-0 run at the 11:40 mark to build their biggest lead of the day at 58-45.

The Racers saw B.J. Jenkins make a steal that led to an easy basket and it was followed by a three-pointer from Isaiah Canaan that gave MSU a 13-point advantage.

The Mocs (5-6) cut the Racer lead to six at 7:35, but Canaan followed with a three-pointer to put MSU ahead 63-54 with 6:43 remaining.

Tony Easley and Canaan led the way for MSU each scoring 16 points and together, the senior-freshman combination was 13-of-19 from the field.

Jenkins and Ivan Aska each scored 11 for the Racers, who shot 52 percent on 27-of-52 shooting, while holding Chattanooga to 38 percent on 23-of-61 shooting.

The Racers also forced the Mocs into 18 turnovers and had a 40-26 advantage on points scored in the paint.

MSU head coach Billy Kennedy was pleased to see his team come out on the winning side.

"It was good to be at home," Kennedy said. "It seems like forever since were at home and today we didn't play well, but we played well enough to win. We didn't do a good job in the first five minutes and that 10-point hole was something we had to work to get out of."

In the first half, the Racers trailed 18-8 at the 14:18 mark when they used defense to get back into the flow.

Canaan made a steal and converted and moments later Aska did the same to cut the Mocs lead to 20-16 at 10:00.

MSU drew even at 24-24 on a three-pointer by Isacc Miles with 6:28 left.

MSU's final basket of the first half was a steal and dunk by Aska and the Racers led 36-34 after Jasper Williams made a pair of free throws with 3.3 left.

The Racers play their final game before the Christmas break Tuesday at Western Kentucky.