Tuesday, January 2, 2007 11:33 PM CST
Miller miffed by EIU turnovers
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- The old spent-too-much-energy-catching-up-to-finish story?
No, coach Mike Miller figured this was some new problem that his Eastern Illinois basketball team had not shown as Murray State broke a tie in the last 3:19 to beat his Panthers 73-62 in Tuesday's Ohio Valley Conference basketball game at Lantz Arena.
"I wish I could say that's what it was," Miller said. "I wish I could pinpoint it. We've been together for 15 games now, and I can't say I've seen us throw the ball away the way we did tonight."
Two of those turnovers came back-to-back when Bruce Carter made two steals as part of his taking over the game.
The Arkansas-Fort Smith Community College transfer scored six straight points after Eastern had battled back for a tie while also getting two steals and totaling eight point down the stretch.
Carter finished with season-high 28 points and Tyler Holloway was one point off his collegiate high scoring 22 as the Racers raised their record to 6-8 overall and 4-2 in the OVC.
Freshman Romain Martin's 23-point game was not enough to keep Eastern from falling to 5-10 and 1-5 including three straight home-court losses in conference play.
"In order for us to win we have to take care of the ball and we just didn't do that," said Martin, who had two of EIU's 20 turnovers while posting his second highest collegiate output behind the 27 points he scored at Tennessee Tech.
Trailing 53-43 with 10:48 remaining, the Panthers. also had Murray State in foul trouble.
Shawn Witherspoon, the lone returning starter for last season's OVC champion Racers and the league's Preseason Player of the Year, went to the bench with his fourth foul with 16:07 still left to play and reserve Dwayne Paul got his fourth foul with 12:57 remaining.
Witherspoon eventually returned to the court only to foul out with 6:18 to go and his Racers' lead down to 56-51.
Eastern came back and pulled even at 58 when Martin made a free throw after missing his first with 3:44 remaining.
Murray State then worked the ball inside to Carter, who put his team back ahead with an inside field goal.
After Mike Robinson missed a driving attempt for Easter, Carter converted two free throws, stole a pass and cashed in the basket and made another steal leading to two free throws by Tyler Holloway.
"Carter was just all over the place," Miller said.
After a defensive rebound and two Ray George free throws, Murray State had a 69-58 lead and Eastern's comeback bid had been erased.
Murray State had beaten the Panthers 53-50 earlier this season after EIU upset the Racers last season at Lantz Arena.
The rematch went from a 3-point shootout to a free-throw contest with a harmful helping of turnovers thrown into the mix.
Teams that ranked ninth and 11th in the 11-team Ohio Valley Conference in 3-point field goals made nearly matched their averages within the first 10 minutes.
Eastern, standing last in the league with 5.0 3-pointers per game entering this contest, had four of them by the 10:46 mark with Mike Robinson's trey giving the Panthers a 16-13 lead.
Meanwhile, the sophomore Holloway who had made a team-high 26 3-pointers in 66 tries in Murray State's first 13 games but was 0-for-4 in his previous two outings, hit three from behind the arc in Tuesday's first four minutes, 12 seconds His fourth of the game came with 7:20 left in the first half, so by then Holloway had topped his 9.5 scoring average while putting the Racers ahead 22-19.
Carter's 3-pointer 2:06 before halftime was the fifth in the game out of 11 tries for Murray State, which entered the game ninth in the OVC averaging 5.54 3-pointers per game.
After four lead changes and five ties, Murray State reeled off 12 straight points to take a 36-26 lead before Bobby Catchings' two free throws cut that to 36-28 by halftime.
Romain Martin's third 3-pointer of the game gave EIU a season-average matching five 11 seconds into the second half and pulled the Panthers within five.
But that was the last of the Panthers' five 3-pointers while Murray State also cooled off to 1-for-5 from 3-point land in a foul-fested second half in which the Racers made 24 of 36 free throws while Eastern converted 17 of 22.
The early five-point margin to start the second half was as close as it got until Robinson picked up a loose rebound and scored on a drive that had EIU down just 55-51 with 7:02 to play.
The Panthers eventually tied it, only for Carter to take over.
But EIU's problems began sooner than that as it had 12 of its turnovers in the first half "We dug ourselves a hole," Miller said. "(Late in the game) is not like the only time we did it. I'm not going to make any excuses."
Martin said: "They were pressuring us a lot, overplaying, gambling a lot. We just beat ourselves."
Eastern has a 7:30 p.m. Thursday game at Southeast Missouri before returning home to play host to Austin Peay at 7:35 p.m. Saturday.
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
MURRAY STATE (6-8, 4-2 OVC)
Player FG FT Reb F TP
Witherspoon 2-5 1-2 2 5 5
Kennedy 1-2 5-6 0 3 7
Horton 0-2 0-0 5 1 0
Holloway 5-9 7-8 1 2 22
Carter 9-18 9-12 7 0 28
George 0-0 2-2 2 3 2
K. Thomas 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
D. Thomas 1-1 1-3 0 3 3
Paul 2-2 2- 65 4 6
Fotso 0-0 0-0 2 3 0
Team 2
Totals 20-39 27-39 26 24 73
EASTERN ILLINOIS (5-10, 1-5 OVC)
Player FG FT Reb F TP
Catchings 2-7 5-6 8 3 10
Jolliff 0-1 0-0 0 3 0
Cisse 0-2 0-2 1 1 0
Robinson 2-6 4-4 5 4 9
Martin 7-17 6-7 1 4 23
Myers-Kyles 0-0 1-2 1 0 1
Parrish 1-3 0-0 1 3 2
Brock 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Willhite 1-5 4-4 4 3 6
Byrne 4-4 3-5 5 4 11
Team 2
Totals 17-45 23-30 28 25 62
Murray State 36 37 - 73
Eastern Illinois 28 34 - 62
3-point shots: Murray State 6-16 (Witherspoon 0-1, Horton 0-1, Holloway 5-9, Carter 1-5); Eastern 5-17 (Catchings 1-4, Robinson 1-2, Martin 3-10, Parrish 0-1). Shooting percentages: Murray State .513; Eastern .378. Assists: Murray State 12 (Horton, Holloway 4); Eastern 20 (Robinson 7). Turnovers: Murray State 16; Eastern 20.
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CLICK TO ENLARGE
 Kevin Kilhoffer(JG/T-C)
Eastern's Jon'Tee Willhite (33) goes up for a shot Tuesday night at Lantz Arena in Charleston.
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Angie Miley wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:05 PM: