Racers Edged In OVC Tournament Final

Saturday, March 7

Nashville, Tenn.

6 p.m.

Murray State

27-5

Belmont

22-10

Belmont

Murray State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

3/7/2015 11:38:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Murray State Racers fell just short of a 16^th Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship Saturday when the Belmont Bruins nipped MSU 88-87 at the finish line with a 3-point basket with 3.2 seconds remaining.

The victory at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee denied the Racers of the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The loss for the Racers ended an amazing run of winning that saw them go undefeated in December, January and February. MSU's 25-game win streak ended and may stand as the OVC record a long time before it is threatened.

Murray State dropped to 27-5 this season and now will wait to see if they can get an at-large spot in the NCAA. As the OVC regular season champion (16-0), the Racers do have a guaranteed spot in the National Invitation Tournament.

The Racers used a 10-2 midway of the first half to propel them to a 49-41 halftime lead. MSU lost its lead at the 14:14 mark and from that point to the finish, the game had nine ties.

MSU trailed the Bruins when Jeffery Moss tied it with a free throw 80-80 with 2:54 left.

Belmont's Taylor Barnette banked in a 3-pointer with 2:23 for an 83-80 lead, but the Racers cut it to one point at 1:45. Cameron Payne tied it with a long three 85-85 with 1:09 left and then hit a pair of free throws for an 87-85 lead with 20 seconds remaining. The Racers had a chance at a steal with nine seconds left, but lost the ball out of bounds. With a second chance, Belmont's Barnette hit a 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds left for a one point lead. The Racers got a shot off from Sapp just inside the midcourt line at the buzzer, but it was no good and Belmont had an 88-87 win.

Sapp scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting, and Payne scored 20 points to record a double-double with 10 assists. Moss added 12 points, while Jonathan Fairell scored 10. Jarvis Williams scored 11 points to finish the game right on the career 1,000-point mark.

At the end of the day, Payne was named to his second OVC All-Tournament Team and was joined on the team by T.J. Sapp.

The Racers are 15-11 all-time in OVC championship games and fell to 63-35 all-time in the OVC Tournament.