WKU trailed Murray State by 14 points midway through the first half, but the Hilltoppers outscored the Racers 43-31 in the second 20 minutes to complete the comeback and take a 71-64 decision Saturday afternoon at E.A. Diddle Arena. WKU improves to 7-4 with the win, and Murray State falls to 5-6.
The win improved WKU's record in the all-time series between the two longtime rivals to 98-53 and 59-13 in Bowling Green. WKU has now won 11-straight non-conference home games.
Chris Harrison-Docks led WKU with 16 points, and T.J. Price added 15, all of which came in the final 11:59 of the game. George Fant and Trency Jackson added 14 apiece for the Hilltoppers, who outrebounded Murray State in the game, 39-30. The Racers saw 25 points from T.J. Sapp and 24 points from Jarvis Williams. Then the Murray scoring dropped off to five points by Cameron Payne. Payne had five assists and Dexter Payne four.
The Hilltoppers had just nine turnovers in the game for the second time in the last four outings, only two of which came in the second half.
A quick 9-0 Murray State scoring burst gave the Racers an early 16-8 lead as WKU missed four-straight field goals. It extended to a 13-0 Murray State run and seven-straight missed field goals for WKU, causing the Hilltoppers to call timeout trailing 20-8. The lead ballooned to as large as 14 points at 24-10 with 9:23 to go in the first half.
After Murray State led 27-14, WKU went on a 7-0 run of its own capped by a Harrison-Docks three-pointer to make the score 27-21. The Hilltoppers got within five points in the final minutes, and the teams went to the halftime locker room with Murray State on top 33-28.
WKU went 11-for-34 from the floor in the first half (.324), and Murray State shot 46.4 percent (13-for-28). The Racers scored 12 points off seven WKU turnovers.
WKU took its first lead since 8-7 in the first half, 45-44, after a Price layup with 10:42 left in the game. Shortly after that, the Hilltoppers went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-point lead at 66-55, its largest of the game.
The Racers clawed within six points on two occasions in the final 92 seconds of the game, but WKU made five free throws to seal the victory.
WKU finished the game shooting 40.0 percent (26-for-65) from the floor. WKU made 13 of 17 free throw attempts (.765), giving the Hilltoppers five games of shooting better than 75.0 percent from the charity stripe in the first 11 games of the season and equaling the total from all of last season.