HONOLULU —In the wee hours of Christmas Eve, Murray State’s men’s basketball team had to swallow a fourth straight loss that simply hurt.
And that is no way to be when spending the holiday season in a place like Hawaii during an event called the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. With an opening loss Sunday to a Nebraska team that simply seemed better, followed by, simply, a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to North-Carolina Charlotte in the overnight hours Tuesday, this venture to the island paradise was starting to look like it might end with very few good memories from a place that is supposed to produce a lifetime of them.
So, the Racers had to find a way to put the deep disappointment of the UNCC loss in the past to focus on Wednesday’s final matchup in Honolulu against the other team in the tournament that was staring a winless venture in the face — defending Atlantic 10 Conference champion Loyola of Chicago — on, of all times, Christmas Day. However, after such disappointment, even having to watch other teams hit impossible shots against them at key times, finally, it was the Racers getting something to go their way.
Murray State, down 11 points early in the second half, scratched, clawed, fought and every other verb that describes the will to survive in emerging with a badly-needed 71-68 win that not only served as the end of the losing skid, but one heck of a Christmas gift on the way out of Paradise.
“We needed this one today,” said Murray State Head Coach Steve Prohm, whose team improved to 7-6 on the season, while the Ramblers dropped to 9-4. “This one resonates big for us down the road because that is a good basketball team we beat. I told the guys that, if you really watched all of their games they played here (including Wednesday’s game), their game with (College of Charleston) was a dogfight until about the last four minutes when Charleston made a couple of threes to pull away and ended up winning by 10. They went to the horn with Oakland (losing on a last-second putback after the Ramblers took the lead in the final 10 seconds after trailing by as many as 12 points in the second half).
“The last 24, 48 hours were very emotional (after UNCC got a last-second desperation 3-pointer to send Monday’s game into extra sessions, narrowly avoided a last-second bomb bid from the Racers in the first overtime and took command in the second OT to win, 94-90).”
This game was the same in one regard, but much different in another, when compared to the first two games in Honolulu. Wednesday, Murray State once again fell behind in the early stages as Loyola led, 20-12, on a 3-pointer from guard Sheldon Rogers Jr. about halfway through the first half. Unlike the first two games, though, the Racers were shooting very well from the field, hitting 12 of their first 17 shots for 70% success (which allowed them to even stay in contact with the Ramblers after they started a blazing 12-for-13 at 93%). That helped the Racers trail only 36-34 at halftime.
The second half, though, started very rough for Murray State as Loyola’s 6’10’ big man, Miles Rubin, spearheaded a 9-0 run for the Ramblers out of halftime that put them up, 45-34, and he appeared to be taking over the game, not only scoring on three straight dunks but blocking shots and causing overall mayhem on the inside. However, the Racers remained calm and showed resolve and, after back-to-back 3-pointers from guard Terence Harcum and forward A.J. Ferguson and an inside score from forward Nick Ellington, suddenly had pulled up on the Ramblers’ back bumper at only 49-46 with 13:06 remaining.
Loyola called timeout but this is where Prohm opted to try something to offset his team’s obvious size disadvantage in this one. Murray State returned to the court and began deploying the 1-2-2 full-court press trapping defense that had given it successful moments during the losing skid. Wednesday, it may have been the deciding factor as Loyola would only commit six of its 18 turnovers in the game, but it caused the Ramblers to have to use a lot of time and energy in setting up its halfcourt offense.
The result was Loyola’s blazing shooting began to cool, eventually approaching the freezing mark. The Ramblers would finish the game still outstanding at 25-for-40 (62.5%), but they dropped to 12-for-23 (52.2%) in the second half and this was after they started hotter than the Hawaii sun again, 7-for-9 (78%), They finished much cooler, hitting only five of their final 14 shots (36%).
“We’re just trying to make it hard on you to get it (across the midcourt stripe) and I thought we wore them down a little bit, kind of got them tired,” Prohm said of how Ferguson’s 6’7” size at the point of the press presents trouble for opponents’ smaller point guards, the usual primary ball handlers against such defensive sets.
However, in this tournament. Ferguson was very good as an offensive player too. He had a season-high 21 points in the loss to UNCC, in which he somehow managed to play with four fouls for the final three minutes of regulation and all but 35 seconds of the extra sessions. Wednesday, Ferguson had nine of his 11 points in the second half.
However, Ferguson was only one of many elves who helped save Christmas for Racer Nation on this day.
Lindsay helped slow Rubins (16 points after it appeared he might have 30) and delivered some gifts on the other end with 16 big points and five rebounds. Guard JaCobi Wood, though he had unexpected foul-shooting problems in this tournament, had seven of hits 11 points in the second half, including a huge follow bomb seconds after teammate Justin Morgan had an attempted bomb of his own blocked. That gave the Racers their first lead of the second half, 62-61, with 4:53 remaining. Their last lead had been at 29-28 late in the first half on a Kylen Milton bomb.
However, after Edwards regained the lead for Loyola with two free throws, Harcum (16 points) hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game, a long trey with 3:27 remaining that gave the Racers for good at 65-63. From there, the Racers tried to grow the lead and did push it to five, 70-65, on a Morgan free throw (on a day he was very important in the win with three points, two rebounds but several strong defensive possessions) with about 20 seconds left.
However, as they did in the loss to UNCC, the Racers left a lot of points at charity stripe, going only 4-for-8 in the final minute-or-so (and 22-for-33 for the game for a shaky 66.3%).
Unlike that loss (UNCC was a ridiculous 34-for-36 at the stripe), Loyola was not that solid, only going 14-for-21, a contributing factor to the Ramblers finding themselves in the same spot as UNCC early Tuesday morning. It had to have a 3-pointer to force overtime.
UNCC had its prayer answered on Christmas Eve when a player, who also had banked in a trey earlier in the game, hit a shot out of a scramble situation in which all he seemed to be doing was somehow get the ball into the air. On Christmas Day, it was the Racers getting the gift as Edwards’ last-second 3-point try off a loose ball was off target. Like the UNCC game, that shot was launched as Loyola had to scramble because it could not find anyone open and had to fire to beat the clock.
“Thank God he missed,” Prohm said as he described a scene of jubilation, probably more relief than anything, after the game, from the knowledge of knowing the Racers would not face possibly enduring another horrible overtime loss. A long airline flight back to the mainland lie ahead, but one of happiness.
“Now, we’re going to go back home, clean up some things and get to work (ahead of the Jan. 2 contest with Missouri Valley Conference opponent Illinois State in Murray). Talking to them, I said, ‘Hey! I love wins,’ but we’ve got to get to work and focus on what we’ve got to do to get better. One of these days, we’re going to make some free throws (in the final minutes). We know what this team’s ceiling is.”