MURRAY STATE ROLLS INTO OVC TITLE GAME

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- When your leading scorer has only two points at halftime, you can be forgiven if you start worrying. Not Murray State coach Mark Gottfried.

De'Teri Mayes rewarded his coach's confidence by hitting five 3-pointers in the second half and finishing with 25 points as top-seeded Murray State routed Austin Peay 81-56 Saturday in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

"Actually that thought crossed my mind that we were playing well with De'Teri not playing as well as he normally does," said Gottfried. "I told one of my assistants that he's not going to end the game with two.

Murray State will be trying for its second straight tournament title and ninth overall today at 1:30 p.m. against seventh-seeded Tennessee State, which upset third-seeded Middle Tennessee State 74-70 in the other semifinal.

With Mayes missing five of his first six shots, the Racers (28-3) still had a 39-28 lead. He missed only once in the second half as the Racers moved into their fourth straight OVC championship game.

Mayes said he didn't want to force any shots in the first half and thanked Gottfried for staying with the OVC player of the year.

"Don't worry Mayes," Gottfried said. "I'm not going to lose confidence in you now. We've come too far."

For No. 4 seed Austin Peay (17-11), losing was a case of deja vu. The Governors, who have played Murray State in the tournament four straight years, now have lost to the Racers the past two years. This loss was due to poor shooting (29 percent).

"We just could not get our inside game going early," said Austin Peay coach Dave Loos. "We couldn't break Jerome Jackson loose, and that's been a big part of our game offensively."

Jackson finished with 10 points.

Mayes watched his teammates pick up the slack in the first half with Isaac Spencer, Duane Virgil and Chad Townsend all scoring in double digits.

Spencer finished with 18 points, Townsend had 17 and Virgil 10.

Tennessee St. 74, Middle Tenn. 70

Brian Williams scored twice within the final 6.8 seconds as Tennessee State upset Middle Tennessee State.

Seventh-seeded Tennessee State (13-15) nearly blew a 10-point halftime advantage with 10 lead changes in the second half.

Middle Tennessee (19-9) had a chance to go ahead when Williams was called for an offensive foul with 20.4 seconds left. But Mantia Callender hit only one of two free throws for a 70-70 tie.

Williams then drove the lane and scored.