Southeast suffers 80-74 setback to Murray State

The way Saturday afternoon's game was unfolding, Murray State coach Mick Cronin figured the Racers' only chance of winning was for Southeast Missouri State University to run out of gas.

It probably took longer than Cronin had hoped, but he finally got his wish. The Racers used a late 15-0 run to defeat the Indians 80-74 in front of 5,123 fans -- a season-high crowd -- at the Show Me Center.

MSU improved to 19-4 overall and 9-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Indians fell to 10-11 and 3-7.

"It was a great college game, two teams playing extremely hard and leaving it all out on the floor," Cronin said. "With our style of play, sometimes it really takes time to wear people down. They were playing so well and were so well prepared, our only chance was to wear them down."

Which is exactly what the Indians believe happened as the Racers' relentless pressure and deep bench finally exacted a toll.

"I think they just wore us down was the biggest thing of all," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "The last five or six minutes, it seemed like Murray State was quicker to the ball."

The shots that were falling in the first half, when the Indians built a 42-30 lead, and also for much of the second half suddenly were consistently off the mark.

"We might have been tired at the end. We were struggling to score," senior center Brandon Griffin said. "All their players were very athletic and they bring a lot of players off the bench."

MSU pressed Southeast full-court virtually the entire game. The Indians had very few turnovers against that pressure -- they had only 10 turnovers the entire game, most of them in half-court settings -- as junior point guard Mike Nelke was particularly impressive with no miscues in 29 minutes.

Southeast also was able to get plenty of good shots in the first 30 minutes or so after breaking the press. But the constant harassment might have eventually taken its toll.

"The shots just weren't falling in the second half like they were in the first half," junior forward Dainmon Gonner said. "It probably could have been the press wore us down. We were shooting jump shots and the legs weren't there."

Said Cronin: "I thought Mike Nelke did a great job of handling our pressure. We ran a lot of athletic guys at him. We only had three steals, but I think it still wears you down."

Gonner hit seven of 11 shots and scored a game-high 22 points. He also had six rebounds and four assists despite suffering a bruised kneecap in the first minute that forced him to the sidelines for a while.

"I kind of banged it and it was hard to bend it, but I wanted to stay in the game," Gonner said.

Griffin hit six of nine shots and scored 13 points while grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds.

Junior guard Derek Winans and senior forward Damarcus Hence each added 11 points, but they combined to make just two of 14 3-pointers. Nelke had nine points on 3-for-7 shooting from 3-point range.

Junior guard Adam Chiles paced the Racers with 16 points. Junior forward Kelvin Brown had 14 and senior forward Antione Whelchel 13.

"They're a very good team," Garner said.

Consistently slicing through MSU's press for easy baskets, the Indians shot 53.6 percent in the first half and led 42-30. They repeatedly answered every Racers' charge for a good part of the second half and were still ahead 63-53 with 8:35 remaining.

Southeast led 66-61 with five minutes to go but did not score for the next 4:42 as the Racers took control with 15 consecutive points.

Brown's basket with 3:37 remaining pulled the Racers into a 66-66 tie, and Cuthbert Victor's layup with 2:23 left put MSU up for good at 68-66. It was the Racers' first lead since 16-14 midway through the opening period.

Chiles scored six straight points and Brown's dunk with 25 seconds left gave the Racers an insurmountable 76-66 advantage.

Gonner's 3-pointer with four seconds left made it 78-74, but Chiles added two free throws with one second remaining for the final margin.

"I can't tell you how impressed I was with their team. We expected a war, a battle," Cronin said. "Their record is an aberration. Now they've played five games they could have won. They could easily be in second or third place."

Prior to Saturday's loss, four of the Indians' other six OVC defeats had been by a total of nine points. But in the aftermath of another tough setback, that seemed like little consolation to Garner.

"We kind of feel like we've been snakebit, but you make your own luck," he said.

Southeast's shooting dipped to 38.2 percent in the second half and finished at 45.2 percent for the game. The Indians also made just seven of 28 3-pointers (25 percent).

MSU, getting the ball inside for much of the second half, shot 56.3 percent in the period and finished at 47 percent. The Racers also had 10 turnovers.