NASHVILLE — No. 25/24 Murray State made eight of its last nine field-goal attempts and erased an 11-point deficit with 6:31 remaining to post an 80-77 victory over Morehead State in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament on Friday night at Municipal Auditorium. The top-seeded Racers were playing their first game after receiving a double-bye. The fifth-seeded Eagles were playing their third contest in as many days.
Murray State, which increased the nation’s second-longest winning streak to 25 games, improves to 27-4 overall. The Racers have won six straight against Morehead State, including a pair of victories this season. Morehead State sees its third season under Head Coach Sean Woods end at 17-17 overall. The Eagles won 10 of their last 14. The contest was televised nationally by ESPNU.
“I thought tonight was an outstanding college basketball game in a terrific atmosphere,” Woods said. “I would have to think this was one of the best OVC Tournament games ever. It’s unfortunate that someone had to win and someone had to lose. You have to tip your cap to Murray State. They’ve had a great season, and they made plays down the stretch when the game was on the line.”
OVC Player of the Year Cameron Payne, a sophomore for Murray State, led all players with 25 points. His third three-pointer with 54 seconds left completed the Racers’ comeback. Payne was 9-of-20 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. He also added four assists and three steals. Morehead State had two chances for a game-tying trey in the final 10 seconds, but misfired on both.
“(Cameron) Payne was the difference in this game, especially in the final minutes,” Woods said. “He hit some miraculous threes to put Murray State back in front. I can’t fault our defense. There are good players and great players. (Cameron) Payne is a great player. As someone who played at the highest level of college basketball, I have a deep appreciation and respect for how he plays. When Morehead State had Kenneth Faried, they beat everyone. Now, Murray State has Cameron Payne and they are beating everyone. Teams in this league tend to win championships when they have high-level pros.”
Morehead State trailed 43-32 at the half, but the Eagles opened the final 20 minutes on a 35-14 run. Junior Brent Arrington’s three-pointer at the 13:37 mark gave his team a 52-51 cushion. A three by senior Karam Mashour with 10:13 left ignited a 10-0 run that pushed the Eagles’ advantage to 67-57 with 7:47 on the clock. Junior Marcus Fuggins’ bucket with 6:31 remaining lifted his team to its largest lead at 71-60.
“We settled down in the second half and started to play our style,” Woods said. “Our guys were determined to fight and get the lead back after we fell behind by double figures. I was really happy to see that. We started driving Murray State’s guards, got some misdirection going and their post players had to chase us. We got the momentum back when we hit some open jump shots and got points in the paint.”
Mashour led Morehead State with 22 points and 11 rebounds, which marked his fifth double-double. He reached double-digits 20 times this season, including his final 10 games, and scored 20+ four times in that span while averaging a team-best 18.1.
Senior Kareem Storey finished with 20 points, just two shy of the career high he set against UT Martin in the regular season, and a team-best five assists. A transfer from the College of Southern Idaho who started his collegiate career at Utah, Storey concludes his MSU career with 302 assists in 63 games (4.7 apg).
Senior Angelo Warner, the OVC’s active scoring leader and the only fourth-year player on Morehead State’s roster, contributed 13 points in his final game. Warner finishes his Eagle career with 1,557 points in 130 games (12.0 ppg). He had 84 career double-digit efforts and finishes 10th in career scoring at MSU.
Senior Jarvis Williams notched 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Racers. It was his 11th double-double this season and the 25th of his career. Senior T.J. Sapp poured in 17 points, while junior Jeffery Moss rounded out four Racer starters in double-digits with 10 points.
Murray State outrebounded Morehead State, 42-33, as senior Jonathan Fairell grabbed a game-best 13. The Eagles, who have led the OVC in rebounding margin the past six seasons, were only outrebounded three times in the final 20 games and eight times in 34 contests this season.
Murray State shot 47 percent (29-of-62) overall and hit 78 percent (18-of-23) from the free-throw line. Morehead State managed to hit 44 percent (26-of-59) overall and drilled 8-of-22 three-pointers. The Racers held an advantage in paint points (46-34), but Morehead State led in second-chance points (15-7), points via turnovers (17-11) and bench scoring (21-0). The Eagles committed only eight turnovers.
The Racers held the lead for 20:57, while the Eagles were on top for 17:01.
The contest marked the collegiate finale for Mashour, Storey, Warner, Billy Reader, Jalen Courtney and Chad Donley.
“I am very proud of our players, coaches and support staff,” Woods concluded. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity this season, with injuries and other things out of our control, but our group has stayed the course and continued to fight. People counted us out about a month ago, but we got hot towards the end of the season and just went toe-to-toe with one of the better teams in the country on national TV.”
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