RACERS LAP INDIANS 101-66; MURRAY STATE RUNS HOME STREAK TO 24 GAMES

MURRAY, Ky. -- Another basketball game, another home-court victory for Murray State's high-flying Racers.

The Racers stretched their winning streak at Racer Arena to 24 -- the fourth-best among the nation's Division I teams -- by demolishing Southeast Missouri State University 101-66 Saturday afternoon.

A noisy, near-capacity crowd of 5,361 saw the Racers improve to 17-2 overall and 7-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play. It was MSU's fifth time this season to score more than 100 points in a game.

Southeast fell to 8-9 overall, 4-5 in the league.

Southeast has now lost 11 straight games to MSU and will go down in history as never having won a game in Racer Arena. The Racers are scheduled to begin play in a new building next season.

The Indians have won some games against the Racers in Murray, but that was before Racer Arena opened. Southeast's last win in Murray was in 1947.

Southeast never seriously was a threat to break its Racer Arena hex Saturday. The Racers took the lead for good midway through the opening half, led 38-25 at halftime and put the game away by scoring the first 11 points of the second half.

Some veteran OVC observers have said this MSU team is one of the most physically talented to ever play in the conference.

You'll probably get no arguments from Southeast coach Gary Garner and his Indians after they were out-quicked, out-jumped, out-muscled, out-shot and out just about everything else by the Racers.

"Murray State is without a question the best team we've played this year. And that's taking into account Louisville, Missouri, everybody," said Garner. "They're a great basketball team, a top 25 team, no question.

"If they play like they played today, they're definitely a top 25 team. I can see why they beat Arkansas. They just had too many athletes for us."

Even though the Racers had been winning, coach Mark Gottfried had not been all that enamored with his team's play in recent games. But that all changed Saturday.

"We played well. I think they (Southeast) caught us on one of our better nights," said Gottfried. "I know they're a better basketball team than they showed. This was probably our most complete game from start to finish."

The Racers were led offensively by Isaac Spencer, a 6-foot-6 sophomore forward who scored 24 points and also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

De'Teri Mayes, a 6-3 senior guard who had scored 42 points during an earlier win over Arkansas, had 19 points.

Also in double figures for the Racers were Aaron Page (14) and Aubrey Reese (13), neither of whom started. Ten Racers scored in all.

Southeast got 14 points from Demetrius Watson, 13 from Kahn Cotton and 10 off the bench from freshman Nathan Owen, who did all of his scoring in the second half.

MSU shot 52 percent from the field (32 of 62) and 57 percent on 3-pointers (eight of 14) while also outrebounding Southeast 42 to 27.

Southeast shot 43 percent from the floor (24 of 56) and 23 percent from 3-point range (five of 22).

The Racers did a solid job of blanketing Southeast's leading scorer, 3-point specialist Cory Johnson, who was able to get off just one shot, a trey that he made.

MSU also shut down Southeast center Bud Eley, who made his first start since coming back from a broken foot. Eley, who had averaged 30 points and 12 rebounds in two previous games at Racer Arena, scored eight points.

The Indians did manage to hang in the game for about the first 10 minutes. After falling behind 10-6 early, Southeast went ahead 16-14 on Watson's fast-break layup with 12:08 remaining in the opening half.

MSU came back with a 9-0 run, taking the lead for good on a Mayes 3-pointer that made it 19-16 with 9:31 left. The Racers stretched their lead to 38-25 by halftime.

It didn't take long in the second half for the Racers to put the game away.

Mayes hit a jumper and then a 3-pointer, Duane Virgil got a tip-in, Chad Townsend drained a 15-footer and Spencer hit two free throws. All of a sudden MSU led 49-25.

And things would only get worse from there. Not only did the Racers continue to pour it on, but Garner was hit with a technical foul and ejected with 57 seconds left.

An ejection is automatically invoked after two technicals, which left Garner wondering why he was tossed.

"I was just upset, naturally. I said something," Garner said. "He threw me out before a second one (technical). I don't know if he can do that. There was no foul language.

"But we'll go through all the proper channels and look into it."

The official that hit Garner with the technical, Doug Shows, had also given Garner a technical during a recent game against Tennessee Tech at the Show Me Center even though Garner insisted that a fan in the stands and not he had said something to Shows when the official was facing away from the Southeast bench.

"You notice it was the same guy (official)," said Garner.

With Garner sent off the court, he missed seeing the Racers put a fitting cap on their big night when reserve Mike Turner hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send MSU over the century mark.

"I saw enough to know how good a team they are," Garner said. "We made some offensive mistakes. It should have been a closer game at halftime. But we had a good effort. They just had too much talent."

Southeast will now have nearly a week off before playing host to Eastern Illinois next Saturday night.