Racers Win At EIU - Push Win Streak To 14. - Murray State University Athletics

Thursday, January 22

Charleston, IL

8 p.m.

Murray State

16-4 (6-0OVC)

Eastern Illinois

12-7 (6-1OVC)

Murray State

Eastern Illinois

Photo by: Murray State Sports Information

Racers Win At EIU - Push Win Streak To 14.

1/22/2015 2:31:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Murray State Racers pushed their win streak to 14 Thursday with a 77-62 victory over the Eastern Illinois Panthers at Lantz Arena in Charleston, Ill.

Cameron Payne scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-20 shooting as the Racers (16-4) took sole possession of first place in the Ohio V alley Conference at 6-0. The Panthers fell to 6-1 in league play and 12-7 overall.

MSU also got 15 points and nine rebounds from Jarvis Williams and a 12-rebound performance from Jonathan Fairell. T.J. Sapp had three steals and 13 points, while Jeffery Moss scored 11 points.

The Racers started the game in fine fashion with a 28-10 start in the first 11 minutes of action. MSU made a push with a steal from Sapp and resulting dunk and a pair of 3-pointers from Payne.

Enjoying a 39-26 halftime lead, the Racers eventually pushed to a 24-point lead (61-37) at the 11:50 mark.

Playing in front of a packed house at Lantz Arena, the Panthers trimmed MSU's lead to 65-55 with 5:29 remaining, but could not get any closer.

The Racers had another stellar defensive effort in holding EIU to 35 percent for the game from the field on 20-of-58 shots and 5-of-24 from the 3-point line. MSU managed 50 percent on 29-of-57 and 6-of-16 from long range for 38 percent. MSU won the rebound battle 40-33, with Fairell and Williams combined to grab 21 of them.

Game Notes
Murray State 23-game winning streak from 2011-12 still stands as the best in MSU history and in the OVC. MSU is now up to 14 wins in a row and have the eighth-best streak in league history and sixth-best at MSU. The Racers have tied the 14-game streaks that occurred in the 1982-83 and 1989-90.

Payne's 33 points sets a new career-high after he scored 32 in MSU's win at Evansville (Dec. 13).

Fairell tied his season-high with 12 rebounds and was two off his career-high of 14 against Eastern Illinois from last season.

The announced crowd of 4,542 at Lantz Arena was the largest for EIU on its home court since 2001.

The Racers finish their weekend trip to the Prairie State with a 7 p.m. tip Saturday at SIU Edwardsville. MSU leads the all-time series with the Cougars 11-3, but will be looking to win at the Vadalabene Center after losing their in the last two trips.