Murray pulls away late, drops Indians

MURRAY, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University and Murray State have hooked up in some memorable basketball games over the past several seasons and often battled for Ohio Valley Conference supremacy.

Even though the Indians and Racers both are down now, the two still put on an entertaining show Saturday.

But unfortunately for the Indians, one of their most determined and impressive performances of the season went for naught because of Justin Burdine.

Burdine, an explosive senior guard, poured in 33 points and almost singlehandedly thwarted every Southeast charge as the Racers pulled away late for an 85-72 victory in front of 3,506 at the Regional Special Events Center.

The Indians fell to 3-14 overal, 1-5 in the OVC. The Racers, who lost six of their last seven games, are 9-9 and 3-3.

"We played hard and we played pretty well," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "But the biggest part of the game was Justin Burdine. He's a great player and when he gets it going, you just have to hope he misses."

The 6-foot-1 Burdine didn't miss often as he connected on 12 of 23 shots from the field, including five of 11 3-pointers.

Burdine, although one of the OVC's leading scorers at nearly 19 points per game before Saturday, had been shooting just 42 percent from the floor, which MSU coach Tevester Anderson attributes primarily to questionable shot selection.

"Justin can score and we need his scoring," Anderson said. "He made some big shots down the stretch and he took good shots. He's beginning to let the game come to him."

Said Burdine, who tied his career-high point total, "I'm just trying to be patient and let the shots come out of the offense. I tried to score a little bit early to help us a get a lead."

Antione Whelchel added 15 points for the Racers. Antonio Henderson scored 13 points and Cuthbert Victor had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Indians were paced by Tim Scheer and Derek Winans with 14 points apiece. Drew DeMond added 13 and Damarcus Hence, inserted into the starting lineup, had 12.

Southeast fell behind 28-18 with just under eight minutes left in the first half, but the Indians, trailing 33-24, used a 12-0 run to go ahead 36-33 and things would remain extremely tight until the final several minutes of the contest.

Victor's follow shot with 1:05 remaining in the opening period put the Racers up 37-36 and that was the halftime score as the Indians were able to hang close in large part because of only five turnovers. They finished the contest with 12 turnovers.

"We'll take 12 turnovers," Garner said.

The Indians never could take the lead in the second half, but they pulled into a pair of ties, the final one coming on a Brett Hale jumper with 8:52 left that made it 59-59.

Whelchel's basket from in close at the 8:30 mark put the Racers up for good at 61-59. Less than 30 seconds later, Burdine's 3-pointer made it 64-59.

Southeast trailed 64-61 when MSU delivered something of a knockout punch with a 10-1 run, getting four points apiece from Burdine and Victor.

Trailing 74-62, the Indians put together one more charge. Hale's 3-pointer with 1:45 left made it 76-69 and Winans' 3-pointer at the 1:14 mark pulled Southeast to within 78-72.

But the Racers were able to ice the victory from the free-throw line as they scored the game's final seven points.

"It seems like the same old, same old for us," said Garner, referring to his squad hanging tough with most of the teams they play but very rarely coming away with victories. "I'm proud of our team. Whenever you're 3-13, it's extremely hard to stay in there and given an effort like this. "But the bottom line is wins and losses and we pretty much are what our record says."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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