MURRAY, Ky. – Trailing by 12 points early in the second half, the Eastern Kentucky University men's basketball team rallied for an exciting 64-62 victory at Murray State Thursday night in the Regional Special Events Center. The win was the first for EKU (14-9, 9-6 OVC) in Murray since 1992 and secured the Colonels' first season sweep over the Racers (12-12, 10-6) since the 1984-85 season.
Murray State shot 50 percent (15-of-30) in the first half while Bruce Carter netted 17 points to help the Racers establish a 35-25 lead at the break. Ed Horton's jumper on Murray's first possession of the second stanza gave MSU its largest advantage of the game, 37-25. After the Colonels managed to cut the deficit to five points, a Shawn Witherspoon three-pointer pushed the Murray State advantage back to eight points with 11:41 remaining, 51-43. From there, the Eastern defense would allow just 11 more points the rest of the way.
Back-to-back lay-ups by senior Julian Mascoll and junior Darnell Dialls helped the Colonels creep to within four points, 53-49, with 6:53 left. A couple of minutes later, Murray State missed a pair of free throws before Mascoll tallied his only three-pointer of the game to level the contest at 54-all. On the Racers' ensuing possession, Mascoll came away with a steal and was then intentionally fouled on the breakaway. The guard netted both free throws to give Eastern Kentucky its first lead since 18-16 in the first half.
Murray State responded with a Witherspoon bucket to even the contest for the fourth time on the evening at 56-all. A Jamaal Douglas lay-in then put the Colonels back on top for good, 58-56. The Racers tried to answer, but the home team missed its 20th field goal attempt of the half on the next trip down the court. Another Douglas lay-up stretched the EKU lead to four, 60-56, with 33 ticks left.
Sophomore Mike Rose, Eastern's leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, was held to 1-of-13 shooting from the field, but recorded four straight free throws down the stretch to keep Murray State at bay. The Racers had one final chance to come away with the victory only to see Tyler Holloway's desperation half-court shot at the buzzer miss the rim.
Eastern Kentucky shot 54.2 percent (13-of-24) in the second half to aid in the comeback. Freshman Adam Leonard recorded four three-pointers to register a team-best 12 points. Mascoll added 11 points while Douglas and freshman Josh Taylor combined for 13 points off the bench. Senior Michael Brock hauled in a team-high seven rebounds.
For Murray State, Carter was held to two points in the final 20 minutes and finished with a game-high 19 tallies. Witherspoon chipped in with 14 points and became the 33rd Racer to reach the 1,000-point plateau. The Racers were just 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) at the free throw line in the second half.
Eastern Kentucky is right back in action on Saturday, Feb. 10, at Southeast Missouri. The game will be televised nationally by ESPNU beginning at 7 p.m.
