ETSU rally falls short as racers win 8th straight

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Despite being held to a season-low 20 points at halftime, the ETSU men’s basketball team fought their way back into Saturday afternoon’s game against Murray State.

After trailing by as many as 18, the Bucs held the Racers to 25 second-half points and managed to take their first lead of the game with 2:06 left.

Ultimately, Murray State kept ETSU’s offense in check and held on to give ETSU its first home loss of the season, 61-57, inside ETSU/Mountain States Health Alliance Athletic Complex in Johnson City, Tenn.

“It’s a tough loss,” ETSU head coach Murry Bartow said. “So many games come down to the last two, three minutes. We’ve won a lot of those over the years, but tonight we didn’t win that last two minutes.”

ETSU may have been fortunate to have been in the game at all. The Racers held the Bucs to 17 shot attempts and gave away 15 turnovers in the first half. After halftime, the Bucs managed to force 15 Murray State turnovers, but struggled on the offensive end, hitting only 32 percent of their shots.

“I thought the energy in the second half was great,” Bartow said, “but I think we went 10 straight possessions and scored a point. We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket.”

Murray State, which just picked up its eighth-straight win, was held to its lowest scoring output of the season. Despite this, the Racers used a punishing inside game to win the rebound battle (39-29), and scored 20 points off 20 Buccaneer turnovers.

While ETSU’s ball security improved in the second half, their offense couldn’t match their defensive intensity. Junior forward Tommy Hubbard, who leads the Bucs in points (15.6) and rebounds (8.6) per game, only had two shot attempts in the game.

The Bucs’ offense took another blow when junior guard Justin Tubbs, who also averages 15.6 points per game, left the game with a broken nose with 11:35 left in the second half.

“It’s a concern that [Hubbard] only took two shots,” Bartow said. “Obviously we lost some firepower when we lost Justin Tubbs.”

With their top two scorers inert, the Bucs looked to newer faces to carry the offense. After hitting the game-winning shot in Thursday’s game against North Georgia, junior guard
Micah Williams again tried to shoulder the load by scoring a game-high 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Freshman guard Bruce Grimm, who averaged seven minutes a game before
Saturday, scored 11 points in 14 minutes of the second half. Despite shooting only 2-of-11 from the field, Grimm managed to notch four steals and went 6-of-8 from the free-throw line in the waning minutes of the game.

“In the first half, you could tell that there was no energy on the floor,” Grimm said. “When Coach called me, I knew I had to bring energy to the game.”

For the Racers, sophomore forward Ivan Aska posted a double-double, leading Murray State in scoring (17) and leading the game in rebounds (14). Senior forward Danero Thomas added 12 points, and junior guard Isacc Miles led the game in steals with five.

The Racers lived up to their name in the opening minutes of the game. Aska scored six quick points as Murray State leapt out to an 8-3 advantage in the first 5:15. After two straight
ETSU baskets, the Racers built on their lead with an 11-0 run in the following 3:20. From that point on, the teams traded baskets, with ETSU never cracking Murray State’s double-digit lead. Aska capped off a dominant first half with a jump shot as time expired, putting the halftime score at 36-20.

“I’m incredibly disappointed in the first half,” Bartow said. “It wasn’t a very pleasant halftime, but we were able to come out in the second half and do some positive things.”

After halftime, the Racers hit a quick basket to give them their largest lead of the game at 38-20. From there, however, the Bucs found their energy as they mounted a 14-4 run over the next five minutes to put the score at 42-34. Murray State retained its eight-point lead for the majority of the half, but allowed the Bucs after the game with poor free-throw shooting.

With the score at 53-45, the Racers missed eight consecutive free-throw attempts. During that time, the Bucs were able to score seven unanswered points to pull the score to 53-5.

After ETSU’s last basket, Grimm tipped the inbound pass to sophomore guard Adam Sollazzo, who coasted in for an easy layup to give ETSU its first lead of the game, 54-53, with 2:06 left in the game.

Nine seconds later, the Racers retook the lead when Thomas sprinted past ETSU defenders for a layup. After an ETSU miss, Murray State built on their lead with a layup from Miles. Three consecutive Grimm free throws evened the score at 57, but from that point, the Bucs missed their final two shots while the Racers went 4-of-6 from the free-throw line, putting the final score at 61-57.

Murray State (8-1, 2-0 Ohio Valley) will look to extend its winning streak to nine when they travel to Ruston, La., to face Louisiana Tech. The Buccaneers (5-6, 1-0 A-Sun) will try to even their record as they go to Morehead, Ky., to play Morehead State.