FINAL SCORE: Western Kentucky 92, Murray State 70

RECORDS:
Western Kentucky “Hilltoppers” — 1-5 overall
Murray State "Racers" — 5-2 overall

PLAY-BY-PLAY HIGHLIGHTS:

First Half — Game opens with five lead changes and two ties in the first 6½
minutes ... Murray’s Mike Turner hits games first bucket with three-pointer
from top of key at 19:20 ... Filip Videnov gives Hilltoppers their first lead
by scoring WKU’s first six points on a baseline turnaround jumper (18:58), a
dunk (18:28) and a running jumper from 7 feet (17:19) ... Turner ties score
again with another three with 17:03 remaining ... Lead changes hands on three
straight possessions with Rod Murray giving Racers a 12-9 lead at 15:10 with
an 18-foot jumper ... WKU goes on 13-0 run during 1:56 stretch to take 22-12
lead with 12:02 left — Lee Lampley scores first five points during the spurt
with three-pointer and a dunk ... MSU closes to within five on a free throw
and layup from Murray and another layup by Isaac Spencer ... Toppers remain in
front with treys from Todor Pandov (on his first shot after entering the
contest) and Tremaine Rowles, and lead 28-20 with 8:16 to go ... Racers’
Spencer makes free throw, then both teams go scoreless over next 3:32 until
MSU pulls to within two on three-pointer from Aubrey Reese ... Nashon
McPherson extends Topper lead to 32-26 at 3:24 with trey from left corner ...
Reese answers with another three, but Lampley scores Hilltoppers’ final seven
points of the half to give Western eight-point halftime edge ... Spencer makes
both free throws with 46 seconds left to draw Murray to within five, but
Lampley three-pointer from right wing at 0:36 is half’s final basket.
Second Half — Murray opened the half for the Racers with a dunk, but Western
scored 12 of the next 14 points to pull to a 51-35 advantage with 15:47 left
... Chris Marcus scored six points during the run with two layups and a pair
of free throws ... Spencer hits a layup and Marlon Towns scores five
unanswered (three at 14:56 and layup at 13:24) to cut Topper lead under 10
points (51-42) ... Teams trade baskets with McPherson giving WKU 57-46 lead on
three-pointer at 10:11 ... After a Cunningham follow making score 57-48,
Lampley scores eight straight points for the Toppers — including back-to-back
three-pointers — to give Western double-digit advantage the rest of the way
... Brian Allenspach makes layup and two free throws to build advantage to
69-52 at 6:59 ... Murray comes back with 7-2 run to make score 71-59 with 5:15
remaining, but misses three straight free-throw attempts in next minute ...
Hilltoppers go on 10-2 run after that, with Lampley scoring six points with
two layups and a dunk ... Derek Robinson’s free throws at 1:41 give Toppers
first 20-point lead (81-61) ... Robinson hits four more free throws in final
minute ... Reese connects on three from the right win for Murray’s final
basket with 14 seconds left ... Robinson steals and feeds Rowles for layup at
0:07 for game’s final hoop.

QUOTES:
WKU Head Coach Dennis Felton — "Obviously we’re pleased to win a game,
especially this one. I have great respect for Tevester Anderson and his team,
and what they stand for. ... It was a great opportunity for us to make a
statement with this win. ... What I like is that there is tremendous room for
improvement. ... It was good that we played well enough to have a cushion,
because we had about a four-minute span where we didn’t play well. ... Lee is
starting to evolve into a player. He deserves a lot of credit. ... I told him
last year that I wasn’t sure if his skills were good enough to be a three. He
went out over the summer and worked on it, and proved me wrong. ... What’s so
great is that his game comes along because he’s such a leader on this team."
WKU Forward Lee Lampley — "I knew in warmups that I was going to shoot
well. Shots started falling for me then, and they continued to fall for the
rest of the game. ... We knew we had to keep Spencer and Reese’s numbers
down. We knew we had to keep them off the boards. If we could do that, we
knew we would have a great chance to win."

NOTES — Lampley’s 32 points are career high — he had 19 in two games earlier
this season ... Robinson’s 11 assists are a career high, and marks the first
time a Western player has been in double figures in assists in nine years
(December 1990) ... Marcus has fourth double-figure rebounding performance in
six games ... First time this season that WKU has outscored an opponent from
the free-throw line (13-10) ... Western leads all-time series 93-46 ... Win
ends Murray’s two-game win streak in series — last WKU victory was 93-89 on
Dec. 19, 1991 ... First WKU victory since 76-66 win over Sun Belt Conference
regular-season champion Louisiana Tech in semifinals of conference tournament
on Feb. 28 last season in Lafayette.