Men’s basketball drops heartbreaker to No. 9 Murray State

The UTM men's basketball squad nearly shocked the world on Saturday night, losing to the number nine team in the nation and bitter OVC rival, Murray State, by only 7 points, 65-58.

The Skyhawks held the Racers to their lowest point total against an OVC foe, and it was also the second-lowest score they recorded versus any opponent so far this season.

The Elam Center was sold out and overflowing with fans ready to witness this contest. The phrase "Standing Room Only" came to life as many of the people in attendance could only stand along the Walk/Jog track above the court to watch the game. There were 4,700 fans in the Elam Center on Saturday night, which is one of the largest crowds ever amassed in its history.

The Skyhawks outrebounded the Racers 47 (season-high) to 39, which was a key factor that kept them so close to being the first team to defeat the MSU all season long.

With just four minutes left in the game and the Skyhawks only behind by six points, head coach Jason James made an aggressive plea to the crowd from his bench to get excited for their home team.

"Our guys answered the bell," James said. "For the first time maybe all year, everybody in this arena got to see what I see in practice. We were flying around, being enthusiastic and physical – that's what I see every day. We were in a fight and for the first time for 40 minutes, I thought we played hard and competed – that's what our program is about."

Despite their efforts, the Skyhawks fell to 3-22 overall and to 0-12 in OVC play. A loss is a loss and as Coach James says, there are no moral victories. But, the Skyhawk men have to feel at least some sense of pride after giving the number nine team in the nation such a hard-fought game.

"We don't really believe in moral victories, to be honest with you. We know they are a great team. We know that we haven't had a lot of success. But we believe we belong on the floor with anybody," James said. "And we believe that if we play the right way, that we can compete with anybody, and I think we saw tonight. So, we will take away from this game that we will play hard, we competed, [and] we really got after them when we needed to. But we will also take away from it that we have a long way to go to get where we want to get."

Senior guard Dane Smith saved his best career outing for Saturday night versus MSU. He scored a career-best 24 points and also had 11 rebounds, which also made for his second career double-double.

"Dane was just playing hard, competing and doing all the little things – which is who Dane is," James said.

"He's a fill-in-the-blanks guy and we definitely saw that tonight."

Freshman forward Myles Taylor scored double-digit points with 14 and brought down seven rebounds as well. His performance on Thursday and Saturday night earned him his fifth Adidas OVC Freshman of the Week honor.

Mike Liabo scored eight points, and had six assists and five rebounds for UTM on Saturday night. The sophomore forward had an off night, only shooting two of 17 from the field and just one of eight from beyond the arc (11 and 12 percent, respectively).

"Games come down to about four or five possessions," James said.

"There were about five possessions tonight that our guys just couldn't score. We got stops when we needed to – we just couldn't score and that hurt. That was the deciding factor at the end of the day."

Isaiah Canaan of the Racers also struggled, only scoring 11 points, shooting 33 percent from the field, and missing all four of his three point attempts, which is quite an uncommon sight this season.

UTM will face yet another OVC opponent in Southeast Missouri on Thursday, Feb. 9. Tip off for the game is set for 7 p.m. at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.