Big second half lifts Murray State past Saluki Men’s Basketball, 81-73

By Tom Weber siusalukis.com

MURRAY, KY. — Murray State exploded for 50 points in the second half to rally from a six-point deficit and beat Southern Illinois, 81-73, on Saturday night at the CFSB Center.

Jonathan Stark led the Racers (3-1) with 27 points and eight assists. The 6-foot shooting guard dominated the action during the comeback with 17 points and six assists in the second half alone.

The Salukis (2-2) led by as many as eight during the first half but were out-scored, 18-8, in the final five minutes of the game. Sean Lloyd Jr. led SIU with a career-high 19 points and Kavion Pippen added 12 for his fourth-straight game in double figures.

Southern got off to a good start defensively, limiting the Racers to 2-of-10 shooting from 3-point in the first half and holding Stark to just 10 points. MSU head coach Matt McMahon moved Stark to the point guard spot in the second half, and he kick-started an offense that shot 55 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes, including 7-of-14 treys.

“I thought Coach (Barry ) Hinson did a good job — they were throwing some junk defenses at us — and I thought we adjusted well to it,” said McMahon. “We didn’t want to get too complicated, we just wanted to put Stark in some good positions. You see his 27 points and that will get a lot of attention, but a lot of the big plays were the assists in the second half.”

Southern Illinois bounced back from a 42-point loss at Louisville earlier in the week with a much more competitive showing. All eight players contributed multiple buckets on offense, and the team had a season-low seven turnovers.

“For our basketball team, it was how would we respond after what happened at Louisville, because we just quit at Louisville,” said Hinson. “We responded tonight. I think when we get these two starters back (Thik Bol, Marcus Bartley), we have a chance to be pretty good.”

Lloyd Jr. had 12 of his points in the first half, using his 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame to overpower smaller defenders for close-in looks. He also buried a couple of 3-pointers.

Point guard Aaron Cook was the engine that drove SIU’s offense — he had eight points, four assists and just one turnover.

“I thought it was the best game he’s played so far,” Hinson said. “I was so impressed with Aaron tonight. I thought he did a great job on their point guard, and he got us into offense. Everybody else was sped up, but not Aaron.”

The game ultimately turned in Murray’s favor when Stark and Shaq Buchanan hit back-to-back triples to put MSU up, 69-65, with 3:40 to go. Southern twice cut it to two points on driving layups by Lloyd Jr., but the Racers closed the game on an 8-2 run.

“I thought we looked like a team that hadn’t played in a week, we were a little sluggish in the first half, we let the ball stick on one side of the floor too much,” McMahon said. “I thought our offensive execution in the second half was really good. We moved the ball better, got some higher quality shots from three, and guys really stepped up and delivered.”

Buchanan was 2-for-3 from downtown and 6-foot-8 forward Terrell Miller also hit a couple and scored 16 points.

“We were trying to help on Miller, and Buchanan makes two threes on us,” Hinson said. “We knew Stark was going to get his points, and we talked at halftime about how we have to do a great job on the other guys.”

After playing three of their first four games on the road, the Salukis will play six of their next seven at home.