The Streak Continues - Racers Win At SIUE - Murray State University Athletics

Saturday, January 24

Edwardsville, Ill.

7 p.m.

Murray State

17-4, 7-0OVC

SIU Edwardsville

8-11, 4-4OVC

Murray State

SIUE

Photo by: Murray State Sports Information

The Streak Continues - Racers Win At SIUE

1/24/2015 10:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Murray State Racers pushed their winning streak to 15 Saturday with a 60-54 victory over the SIUE Cougars at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Ill.

The Racers improved to 17-4 and 7-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference and in the process clinched its 28^th straight winning season. A mark that is fourth in the nation behind only Syracuse, Kansas and Arizona.

Cameron Payne scored 22 points and the Racers got a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds from Jarvis Williams. Jonathan Fairell tied his career-high with 14 rebounds.

After a tight game through the first half, the Racers used a 7-0 run to build their largest lead of the game at 42-36 with 13:47 left when Payne nailed a 3-point basket. Payne had a stretch where he scored 10 of 11 points for the Racers. Again the Racers went in front by six points at the 3:48 mark when Fairell rejected a shot in the paint and Payne finished on the other end for a 57-51 Racer lead.

That was MSU's final field goal of the game, but they managed to lock the Cougars down and held them to no field goals in the final 6:05.

In the frantic final seconds, SIUE had one chance to tie the game, but missed a 3-point try with 1:35 left. MSU kept the Cougars at bay when they grabbed six offensive rebounds in the final 1:10 of the game.

The first half featured three ties including the intermission score. Moss nailed a 3-pointer with 2.5 before half to tie it 31-31.

It wasn't a pretty stat sheet for the Racers, but they did the right things at the right time to keep their winning ways.

MSU shot 36 percent from the field on 21-of-59 shots, but SIUE was only 20-of-54 for 37 percent.

The Racers won the rebound battle 50-34 and had a season-high 21 offensive rebounds.

Game Notes
MSU's 15-game win streak is tied for the fourth longest in program history. The 23-0 start to the 2011-12 season remains the longest at MSU.

The Racers have gone 10-straight games without trailing at the half. The last time they did was at home to Illinois State (Dec. 20) 42-37.

MSU was a team of streak-breakers this week. They stopped Eastern Illinois' nine-game run Thursday and tonight stopped SIUE's seven-game win streak on their home court.

MSU had a season-high 21 offensive rebounds against SIUE. The Racers previous best against a D-I team was 15 against Western Kentucky (Dec. 6) and Tennessee State (Jan. 17).

Fairell had 14 rebounds tonight to match his career-high from last season against EIU. He has a string of five-straight games with 10+ rebounds.

Payne led MSU with 22 points. It's the 11^th time this season he has led the Racers in scoring. It was his 25^th career game of 20+

The Racers are back at home Thursday to begin a three-game home stand. MSU plays at the CFSB Center against Eastern Kentucky. ESPNU will air the game at 8 p.m. MSU is also at home next Saturday (Jan. 31) for a women's double header against UT Martin at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. MSU hosts Southeast Missouri (Feb. 5).