MONDAY'S SCORES
@#12 California 75, Murray State 70
#12 CALIFORNIA 75, MURRAY STATE 70
BERKELEY, Calif. - The Murray State Racers opened up the 2009-10 men's basketball season with a 75-70 loss to the California Golden Bears in Berkeley, Calif., at Haas Pavilion.
The Racers battled all night long and showed a lot of determinations when they trimmed an 18-point Cal lead with 12:36 remaining down to five at game's end.
MSU head coach Billy Kennedy was disappointed the Racers couldn't get a win, but was happy with his team's effort.
"I am pleased our guys played hard and gave great effort in this environment," Kennedy said. "We came back from 18 down and did some good things against a very good basketball team."
"We had our opportunities," Kennedy added. "But we had a free throw lane violation and gave up an offensive rebound after a missed free throw at the end. We made too many mistakes."
Indeed, the 12th ranked Bears, who were also playing their season opener, were ready to play.
In the first half, Ivan Aska scored nine of the first 14 points for the Racers as they built a 14-11 lead at the 13:42 mark.
MSU kept it a close contest with a steal and jumper by Isacc Miles and a three-pointer by Danero Thomas to make it a 28-26 game at 2:51.
The Bears were able to build their largest lead of the half in the final 1:41 when Jerome Randle hit 4-of-5 from the free throw line.
In the second half, MSU got baskets from Danero Thomas and Aska to cut the Cal lead to five with 17:57 remaining, but the Bears responded with two threes and a three-point play to take a 47-31 lead with 15:13 to go.
Aska ended the game with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while B.J. Jenkins tossed in 16 on 6-of-10 shooting. Danero Thomas was the third Racer in double-figures with 12.
Tony Easley had eight rebounds to pace MSU, while Edward Daniel added six.
"B.J. had a great game, especially after not having played for a whole year," Kennedy said. "He did some good things and had some good play on the defensive end."
After holding Cal to a 40 percent clip from the field in the first half, the Bears upped that to 52 percent in the second half.
The Bears also took advantage of getting to the free throw line 32 times where they hit 22 for 68 percent. MSU only made it to the line 15 times where they made 10 for 66 percent.
"We'll get back home and get back to practice," Kennedy said. "Overall we did some positive things, but we're not satisfied, we have to get better."