Last night, Murray State went down to Cookeville, Tennessee, and found themselves trailing the homestanding Tennessee Tech Eagles 26-20 at the half. They were still behind 32-27 with only 12:53 left, but then they closed the game on a 20-7 run to pull out a hard-fought 47-39 victory. Murray is having to win with defense these days -- they have made only 31.3 percent of their three-point shots in conference play, and their offense is sputtering.
Meanwhile, as I feared, Belmont is rolling through the OVC. But it hasn't all been easy. Last night, they went to Morehead and were down 61-53 with 4:34 left in the game. But they rallied like champions, and survived their trip to Rowan County by the score of 64-63.
We should also give a shout out to Eastern, which has already beaten Murray State at Murray, and whose only conference loss was by 7 points at Belmont. The Colonels get their chance for revenge against Belmont on Saturday, and that should be a really great game.
As usual, the standings show conference games only. The numbers next to each team represent Ken Pomeroy's rankings
EAST
36. Belmont: 7-0
113. E. Kentucky: 6-1
180. Tennessee St: 6-2
193. Morehead St: 4-3
213. Jacksonville St: 5-4
310. Tennessee Tech: 1-6
WEST
119. Murray St: 6-1
266. SIU-Edwardsville: 3-4
262. SE Missouri St: 3-5
308. E. Illinois: 2-6
313. Austin Peay: 1-6
335. UT-Martin: 1-7
Jacksonville State beat Murray for the first time ever, and Belmont beat EKU.
ReplyDeleteI think Belmont is going to be to the OVC what Gonzaga is to the West Coast Conference -- as a program, it's just on a different level from the rest of the OVC. Furthermore, since the OVC Tournament is in Nashville, Belmont will always have a home court advantage.
ReplyDeleteMurray went 4-18 from three-point range against Jacksonville State. So far, the Racers have made only 30.4 percent of their three-point shots in OVC play. Last year, they made 40.0 percent of their three-pointers against OVC competition.
Similarly, UK made 41.3 percent of their three-pointers in SEC play last year. This year, in six SEC games, the Cats have made only 31.8 percent of their three-point shots.