MSU FALLS IN HOME-OPENER TO MURRAY STATE, 80-69 - Morgan State University Athletics

Boxscore

Bear Shots

BALTIMORE, Md. – Four Murray State players scored in double-figures as the Racers defeated Morgan State 80-69 Monday night during the Bears season-opener in Hill Field House.

Isaiah Canaan scored 23 points, Ivan Aska added 21 points and Jewuan Long chipped in 14 and Donte Poole had 10 points for the Racers (2-0), which never trailed.

DeWayne Jackson led the Bears with 19 points and Kevin Thompson had 15 and seven rebounds for the Bears (0-2). Larry Bastfield added 13 points.

Canaan scored 15 of his points in the first half, before 6-foot-8 Jackson was assigned to slow him down. Canaan went the rest of the ballgame without scoring a single basket until late in the second half. Unfortunately, tonight the Bears had to deal with the scoring of the rest of his teammates.

Murray State came out on 7-2 spurt in the opening three minutes and Canaan hit three free throws to give the Racers its largest lead of the night at 52-34 with 17:29 remaining.

The Bears chipped away behind scrappy defensive play and cut the lead to eight when Blake Bozeman was fouled when he hit a hanging bankshot with 6:54 left. His free throw trimmed the lead to 62-54.

But down the stretch the free throw difference was just too much. The Racers shot 11-16 in the last five minutes to hand the Bears' just their first non-conference home loss since losing to Loyola on Nov. 29, 2010 (67-73). Prior to tonight's loss, the Bears had won three-straight non-conference home contests.

“We missed a lot of free throws (15-28; 53 percent) tonight,” said Jackson, “and we need to play more defense and really turn it up. Our defense needs to come together and we as a team need to come together.”

The Racers made its first 21 free throws before they finally missed one at the 6:37 mark – of the second half. Murray State ended up shooting 86.5 percent (32-37) from the stripe and made 21-of-47 (44.7 percent) from the field. Despite 27 turnovers against the Racers, the Bears still shot 55.6 percent (25-45) for the game, and connected on 4-of-10 three-pointers.

“They're a good team [Murray State] and they played hard,” said MSU coach Todd Bozeman. “We're just not good enough right now, and how we work on that takes discipline. It's still early in the season so we just have to work harder, get more discipline and get better.”

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