MURRAY, Ky. — Donte Poole scored 22 points and Isaiah Canaan added 16 – including the 1,000th of his career – and No. 19 Murray State remained unbeaten with a 76-67 victory over Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday night.
The Racers (15-0, 3-0 Ohio Valley Conference) are one win from matching the school's all-time best start set in 1935-36. But to get there they had to hold off a furious rally by the Colonels.
The Colonels trailed by as many as 15 points, but came within one with just under 5 minutes to go before falling for the seventh straight time in the series.
Jaron Jones scored 23 points for Eastern Kentucky (9-7, 3-1).
The Racers played their first game without senior forward Ivan Aska, the team's leading rebounder who is out indefinitely with a broken right hand. Ed Daniel scored 16 points and Stacy Wilson added 13 for the Racers.
Murray State started the day one of four remaining unbeaten teams in Division I men's basketball with Syracuse, Baylor and Missouri. But the Racers got a close call against the Colonels after opening up a 42-27 lead on Wilson's 3-pointer with 1:52 left in the first half.
Eastern Kentucky's Jeff Allgood hit a 3 and Racers guard Jewuan Long was called for a technical foul with just under 9 minutes to play for arguing with officials. The Colonels made all four free throws to cut it to 54-50.
After Poole hit a free throw, Mike DiNunno missed a 3 that would have tied it, but hit a floater in the lane on the next possession to cut it to 55-54. Daniel's three-point play made it 58-54 with 4:25 left.
Murray State pushed the lead to six points, but Jones rallied the Colonels again, hitting a jumper and adding two free throws that cut it to 65-62 with 1:29 to play.
Poole hit two free throws that made it 67-62 and Jones, the reigning OVC player of the year, was called for charging with 1:05 left as the Colonels could never get closer despite 16 points from D'Mitri Riggs.
Murray State is one of the nation's most prolific 3-point shooting teams, coming in at 43.7 percent. The Racers went 8 of 17 from beyond the arc against the Colonels.
Aska broke his hand in the first half of Murray State's 73-40 victory over Eastern Illinois on Dec. 30, but still played 21 minutes in the game. Aska had been averaging 12.6 points and 6.0 rebounds in 14 starts, but Poole picked up the slack.
Canaan, a junior guard, became the 38th player in Racers' history to go over 1,000 points with a 3-pointer with 12:43 to go in the first half.
COLIN FLY | January 4, 2012 10:33 PM EST | Associated Press
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