Canaan, No. 9 Murray State beat Austin Peay 82-62

MURRAY, Ky. – Austin Peay got on the board first against Murray State on Saturday night. It was all downhill from there for the Governors.

Isaiah Canaan had 23 points and six assists and No. 9 Murray State rebounded from its first loss to beat Austin Peay 82-62.

Ivan Aska and Jewuan Long added 12 points each for the Racers (24-1, 12-1 Ohio Valley Conference), who fell to Tennessee State on Thursday night, making them the last Division I team to lose this season.

It was Murray State's most lopsided win over Austin Peay since 1999.

"We can't score like some of these people like Murray," Governors coach Dave Loos said. "We haven't been shooting it well from the perimeter at all so we rely heavily on our inside game and they're not just going to let you continually throw it in."

Alton Williams scored 15 points for the Governors (9-18, 6-7), who lost to Murray State 87-75 on Jan. 7.

"It always feels good to win and it just so happened to be a big rivalry after a tough loss, so they just got the worst of it," Canaan said. "They did a great job of trying to come out and trying to give us a run for our money there at the beginning but we stuck to our game plan and had to move on from Thursday and got back going today."

Canaan made three 3-pointers in the first half. Soon after being pushed to the floor while connecting on his third 3 in a row, Canaan recovered a loose ball, ran down the court, took a glance behind him and then dunked.

With 19 seconds left in the first half, Latreze Mushatt of Murray State and Herdie Lawrence of Austin Peay exchanged words and Racers coach Steve Prohm came off the bench to defend his player. The officials kept the players apart, and also separated Prohm and Loos.

Mushatt was issued both personal and technical fouls, while Prohm and Lawrence each drew a technical. Before the fouls were announced, Prohm approached his counterpart and shared a few words before proceeding to shake Loos' hand and the three Austin Peay assistant coaches' hands.

"We've had some bad situations in college basketball and it's the coach's job to make sure that everybody does right," Prohm said. "That is what I wanted to do and I got T'd up for it. A spark or two flew from both teams but we've got a lot of respect for them. A second later the coaches were fine, the players were fine but they called a technical."

The technical was Prohm's second as head coach after being issued one in Alaska in November.

"I'm the softest guy in that locker room but my main objective was to make sure both players were fine and I apologized to Lawrence, too," Prohm said.

Murray State led 37-24 at the half and the Racers ran off 11 straight points early in the second half to stay in control.

Aska fell to the court after a collision in the second half. He was sprawled on his back and trainer Eric Frederick checked his pupils while Prohm kneeled beside his player. Aska recovered and was helped off the court. He returned to the game within five minutes and made a layup.

"It was scary, my first thing was just to say a prayer for him," Prohm said.

With 9:28 remaining in the second half, Canaan had an open shot from behind the arc but passed to Stacy Wilson, who connected with the net and made a three of his own. Wilson ended the game with 10 points.

A jumper by Donte Poole, who scored all seven of his points in the second half, gave the Racers a 71-45 lead with 7:07 left in the game.

The only bright spot for Austin Peay was the play of its reserves, who outscored their Murray State counterparts 31-24.

"We knew coming in everybody was going to be looking at us trying to see what we're going to do and how we're going to respond after a loss," Poole said.