Tournament hopes vanish

MURRAY, Ky. -- By halftime Thursday night, Murray State had pulled down more offensive rebounds than Southeast Missouri State University had grabbed total rebounds.

And with the Indians' top rebounder, senior center Brandon Griffin, missing his third straight game with an ankle injury, that statistic did not figure to get much better.

It didn't. The Racers pounded visiting Southeast mercilessly on the boards as they emphatically ended the Indians' hopes of slipping into the Ohio Valley Conference tournament with a 76-63 victory.

Southeast (11-15, 4-11) will try to avoid finishing in the OVC's basement when it closes out a third consecutive losing season Saturday at Tennessee-Martin. MSU (24-5, 13-2) had already been locked into second place in the league.

"It's real disappointing because we thought we could get into the tournament," junior forward Reggie Golson said. "But they're a real good team."

The Racers led 39-23 at halftime, when they also held a 25-9 rebounding advantage, including 10-1 on the offensive glass. MSU, the OVC's top rebounding team, wound up with a 47-29 advantage on the boards, including 20-12 offensively, which led to a 20-10 edge in second-chance points.

"Rebounding was probably the biggest difference," Golson said. "They crash the boards really good, and Brandon takes up a lot of space."

Said Southeast coach Gary Garner, "I can sum up this game pretty quick. Two things. We got beat by a very good basketball team, and offensive rebounding. They just kicked us on the boards. It was like they were playing volleyball out there.

"We didn't expect to outrebound them, but we felt if we could hang close on the boards, we'd have a chance to win. I don't think we would have won even with Brandon tonight, but we could have made it a much better game."

Golson finishing strongGolson, continuing his late-season surge, led the Indians with 19 points. He has scored 69 points in the last four games. Junior guard Derek Winans added 15 points.

Senior guard Chris Shumate paced the Racers with 14 points. Freshman forward Shawn Witherspoon had 13 and junior forward Kelvin Brown 11. Senior forward Cuthbert Victor, the OVC's leading rebounder, grabbed 15 boards and scored nine points.

"You have to realize SEMO was shorthanded," MSU coach Mick Cronin said. "They're a different team with Brandon Griffin. They led us for 35 minutes when they had him."

Southeast, which lost a late lead and fell to MSU by six points on Feb. 7 in Cape Girardeau, entered Thursday's game needing to win its final two contests and to have Tennessee State lose its last two games in order to qualify for the conference tournament.

Tennessee State obliged by being hammered at Samford -- but the Indians, despite a decent start, didn't even come close to holding up the first end of their bargain.

After several lead changes, Southeast trailed just 23-22 with six minutes left in the opening period. But the Racers ended the half with a 16-1 run to go ahead 39-23 and the rout was on.

MSU built a 62-35 lead with 11 minutes left. The Indians never got closer than 15 points until the final minute.