The title is already secured and the only regular-season achievement remaining for Murray State is to clinch an unbeaten record in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The 19th-ranked Racers attempt to complete a flawless league schedule Saturday when they visit Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo., for their final regular season OVC contest before heading to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
Murray State (27-2, 17-0 OVC) is trying to become the sixth team in the 74-year history of the league to go unbeaten in conference games, and the first since the league expanded to an 18-game format. The last undefeated team was Murray State in 2014-15, when the Racers went 16-0.
The Racers clinched the regular season title Thursday by rolling to a surprisingly easy 76-43 rout of second-place Belmont, a team that had won 10 games in a row. The Racers dominated the league’s second-best team after eking out a 62-60 win at lowly UT Martin on Feb. 19.
Murray State is unbeaten since a 71-58 loss at Auburn on Dec. 22 and Thursday marked its 12th double-digit win in the winning streak.
OVC scoring leader K.J. Williams scored 30 points on 12-of-19 shooting for his third 30-point showing during the winning streak. Tevin Brown added 15 points as the Racers limited Belmont to 32.1 percent shooting from the field.
“They perform at that level every night. That’s why they’re so good,” Murray State coach Matt McMahon said. “They did a good job adjusting to the zone Belmont started out in. Thought our guys did a good job finding Tevin, and he shot the ball with great confidence. K.J. did as well from three.”
Murray State has limited foes to under 40 percent shooting 11 times and one of those instances was a 106-81 rout over SE Missouri State on Dec. 30. In the first meeting, Justice Hill scored 26 points, Williams collected 21 points and 11 rebounds and the defense allowed 38.5 percent shooting from the field.
SE Missouri State (13-16, 8-8) is looking to end the regular season on a positive note. The Redhawks boast the league’s third-best scoring offense (78.6 points) in league play behind Murray State and Belmont but also own the league’s worst scoring defense (77.9).
The Redhawks won their second straight game Thursday when Eric Reed Jr. scored 21 points in a 76-69 win over UT Martin. They did not take the lead for good until the final seven-plus minutes and shot just 20 percent (3 of 15) from 3-point range.
“It was a choppy game,” Redhawks coach Brad Korn said. “We didn’t have any continuity or flow with the ball.”
Reed is the league’s fifth-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game and has scored 84 in his past three games after making just 4 of 19 shots in losses to Austin Peay and Belmont from Feb. 10-12.
Murray State has won the past nine meetings since an 82-69 loss in Cape Girardeau on Feb. 23, 2017. Eight of those wins were by double-digit margins and the Racers scored at least 80 points in eight of those games.
–Field Level Media