Murray State blows out Southeast men

MURRAY, Ky. -- The Murray State men's basketball team, suddenly vulnerable at home, cured its ills at Southeast Missouri State's expense.

The Racers avoided their first three-game losing streak at the 13-year-old CFSB Center with Saturday night's 96-58 romp that was decided in the opening few minutes.

"They played harder than us almost the entire game," Southeast junior forward Leon Powell said.

MSU recently had its 25-game home winning streak snapped by Austin Peay and made it two losses in a row when Eastern Illinois pulled off the one-point upset with a shot in the closing seconds Thursday.

There would be nothing close to an upset against Southeast as the defending Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion Racers built a 15-2 lead less than four minutes in. It was 31-6 before the 10-minute mark.

"We wanted to come out very aggressive. We were pretty upset about the loss to EIU," MSU junior guard Jewuan Long said. "We were just so hungry for this game."

Things never got any better for Southeast, which suffered its most lopsided loss of the season and also allowed a season-high 96 points.

Southeast (5-15, 4-6) remained eighth in the 10-team OVC after dropping its fourth straight game, all in conference play. The Redhawks lead ninth-place Tennessee-Martin by just one game.

The Racers (13-6, 6-3) are in third place, just a game out of first.

"We knew they would probably have snot coming out of their nose," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said of MSU's likely mindset after its most recent home loss. "That's probably the best I've seen them play all year long.

"We're disappointed with our play, but we don't take anything away from Murray State. I'm disappointed we didn't match that toughness, but tonight not many teams in the league could compete with Murray State."

MSU did little wrong while Southeast did little right in the early going, which allowed the Racers to run away and hide from the outset.

While Southeast missed its first five shots and committed three quick turnovers, MSU hit 5 of its first 10 shots -- including 3 of 6 3-pointers -- to build that quick 15-2 advantage.

The lead steadily grew until it reached 35-9 with more than eight minutes left in the half. By that time the Racers had made 14 of 26 shots while the Redhawks had hit only 3 of 13.

"We dug ourselves a hole. We never could recover," Nutt said.

Southeast finally got its offense going a bit -- mainly sophomore guard Marland Smith -- to pull within 17 points before trailing 51-27 at the break.

Smith helped keep the Redhawks somewhat respectable by scoring 15 first-half points. He hit 3 of 4 3-pointers before the break.

A big first-half statistic was Southeast's 14 turnovers compared to five for the Racers, leading to a 19-3 MSU edge in points off turnovers.

"We just didn't come out ready to play. We weren't focused," Smith said.

Smith, who had a season-high 29 points during Thursday's loss at Tennessee-Martin, finished with a game-high 27 points but could not help Southeast make a dent in its deficit.

The Redhawks pulled within 19 points twice early in the second half before MSU surged again. The Racers' biggest lead was 41 points at 93-52.

"If you stay in it long enough, you're going to have nights like this," Nutt said.

Powell added 17 points and eight rebounds for Southeast.

Senior forward Cameron Butler paced the Redhawks with nine rebounds while adding two blocks and three steals. Junior center Zach House had three blocks off the bench.

Long led four MSU players in double figures with 15 points.

The Racers shot 47.1 percent and had a 45-35 rebounding advantage.

Southeast shot 34.6 percent and wound up with 23 turnovers compared to 14 for MSU. The Racers outscored the Redhawks 44-22 in the paint and had a whopping 52-4 bulge in bench points.

"It was good to see us get better, especially in the first half," MSU coach Billy Kennedy said.

Southeast, already plagued by injuries, played its second straight game with eight available players. Junior walk-on forward Rae-Vonn Banks has not been with the team. Banks is addressing an issue with his financial aid in order to enroll for the second semester.

"We don't know when we'll have him," Nutt said. "We know we're short-handed."

The Redhawks open a two-game OVC homestand Thursday against Jacksonville State.