Written by Ernie Casanova
HARTFORD, CT– The second game of the opening round of the NCAA Tournament showed the Murray State Racers take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. The winner of this matchup will then take on the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday with Sweet 16 implications. With Marquette ranked #5 and the Racers at #12, this matchup had the potential to be the sleeper for best game of the night. Although entertaining, it was extremely lopsided and unexpectedly so. The Racers gave the Golden Eagles a nightmare of a matchup, as Murray State shocked the crowd at the XL Center by defeating Marquette by a score of 83-64.
Murray State won the tip-off and rolled quickly into a groove. KJ Williams hammered down a dunk for the Racers to give them a 2-0 lead, with Marquette’s Joey Hauser following up with a two-pointer of his own. Marquette’s Markus Howard traded three-pointers with Murray State’s Ja Morant to tie it at 5-5, which then ensued the makeup of the rest of the game. Marquette was standing tall with the Racers early on, answering everything the Racers threw at them. Surprisingly, Murray State kept fighting back as the physical presence of this team was equal to that of the Golden Eagles even though they had smaller players. Morant was putting on a show, finding his teammates left to right with beautiful assists. Eight minutes in after a couple of buckets from Shaq Buchanan for the Racers, Murray State was leading 20-10, but Marquette fought back.
The Golden Eagles went on a 12-3 run to close in on the deficit, but the Racers just wouldn’t go away. They were playing with the kind of energy that just might be able to lead them to an Elite 8 or even Final Four appearance. After Murray State took a 37-35 lead with two minutes left to go, you would think the game would finish off as a nail biter, but then came a huge shift of momentum. The final two buckets of the half were made by the Racers, with a thunderous dunk by Devin Gilmore and a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Morant to give them a 42-35 lead at the half.
That was the last that we saw of this ever finishing out as a close contest.
Murray State opened the second half scoring the first nine points, going up 49-35, and Marquette just couldn’t keep up from there. The next bucket was a rim-rattling dunk by Morant on a Marquette defender that rocked the whole arena, giving them a 51-38 lead. As Marquette did all they could to come back, the Racers had more than just Morant to keep going at a fast pace. As Morant was distributing the ball in lovely fashion, it allowed four players for the Racers to notch over 10 points. Howard did all he could to put the Golden Eagles on his shoulders, but it just wasn’t enough against this talented Murray State squad. At one point, the Racers went up by 20 with just over seven minutes left, and you can feel the upset in the air with the crowd enjoying every bit of it. Murray State advances to the next round for what is deemed to be a powerhouse matchup against the Seminoles.
Tevin Brown led the Racers with 19 points and six rebounds, with Williams adding 16. Buchanan added 14 points with six rebounds, but the real star was Morant. Morant finished with a superb triple-double of 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 16 assists. The Racers shot 50% from three-point range and shot an amazing 54% from the floor, compared to Marquette’s 32%. They also outscored Marquette on the fast break 23-7 as the Golden Eagles just couldn’t keep up down the stretch. As for Marquette, Howard led the team with 26 points, with Sam Hauser sitting behind him with 16 points.
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