by Kevin Farr
Aggie head coach Josh Davis likely couldn’t have scripted a better start in his team’s first home game in more than three weeks on Tuesday night inside Beames Fieldhouse as his squad ran its winning streak to seven straight in convincing fashion.
Murray State led from start to finish in a dominant 82-64 victory over Grayson County College, sweeping the season series from the Vikings for the first time in recent memory to improve to 11-2. Grayson, which posted a 5-0 record against other Region 2 squads on its non-conference schedule, slipped to 8-7 on the year.
“I thought we were pretty locked in from the start and got a lot of deflections and defensive plays that turned into points,” Davis commented. “I was proud of our guys and the way they came out. That’s a great coach at Grayson and they have some really talented players, but our guys took control of the game plan and just did an amazing job.”
The Aggies jumped out to a 7-2 lead and steadily increased that margin to as much as 16 points before the break, settling for a 46-31 advantage at halftime. Brandon Ivery pumped in 13 and Ignas Juskevicius had eight prior to intermission.
It was much the same story in the second half, thanks to a tremendous effort by Murray State in the paint while building a commanding 24-point cushion at 70-46 after back-to-back three pointers from Rustin Coffey and Ivery, who tossed in another 13 points in the second half.
Ivery tallied 26 points to lead the offensive charge while Chanon Frye posted a season-high 13 off the bench with Juskevicius adding 10 to also hit double figures. Bol Agu and Elijah Tshibangu were just shy of that mark with nine points each, Abeeng Agot had six, Coffey contributed five and RJ Chatman rounded out the scoring with four points.
“Our goal was to go undefeated in December and the guys are responding,” Davis added. “We moved the ball really well tonight. We shot over 40 percent on threes against Southwestern Christian and shot it pretty well again tonight. It took us a while to get in the shooting flow like we are capable, but it looks like we are getting there now.”
