Getty Ja Morant and the Murray State Racers will host the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks.
The Murray State Racers will host the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at the CFSB Center on Saturday for an Ohio Valley Conference tilt.
The game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable required) that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games — and several other sports — every week.
You can start a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including SEMO vs Murray State — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Southeast Missouri State vs Murray State Preview
The Racers (22-4 overall, 13-2 in OVC play) topped UT Martin 85-75 on Thursday for their sixth consecutive win.
Murray State sophomore guard Ja Morant played all 40 minutes, leading all participants with 30 points and nine assists. Junior forward Daniel Cowart tied for a game high with 13 boards, scoring 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
“I thought [Cowart] was outstanding,” Murray State head coach Matt McMahon said, according to the Murray Ledger & Times. “I think you’ve seen his conditioning continue to get better as the season worn on. He’s really learned the system quickly and has understood how we work and how we put in extra time to continue to get better as a player.”
Morant is enjoying a breakout season. The 6’3″ point guard averages 24.5 points per game, seventh-most in nation. He’s first in assists per game, at 10.3 — no other player in Division I averages more than eight assists per contest.
Most draft analysts project he’ll be selected within the first five picks of the 2019 NBA Draft. Former Virginia Tech head coach and current ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg has compared Morant to super-athletic NBA point guards Russell Westbrook and De’Aaron Fox.
“He’s probably a more creative passer than both of those guys, and probably not as good of a finisher or scorer as Westbrook,” Greenberg told the Lexington Herald-Leader last week. “He’s gotta improve his shot, but I think it’s gonna be fine. It’s a little flat and he’s gotta be a little more consistent with his release point, but I think his shot’s gonna be fine. As long as a shot’s not broken, when you get guys and they go to the NBA, because that’s their job and they’re working out and that’s all they’re doing, they tend to improve significantly in terms of shooting.”
Greenberg’s colleague Jay Bilas compared Morant’s ascension from lightly recruited guard to draft darling to that of two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.
“People are identified early on when they show that kind of talent. People aren’t blind,” Bilas said, per the Herald-Leader. “If he had played this way and performed this way in high school, he would have been seen this way. The same thing with Stephen Curry. Stephen Curry wasn’t a highly recruited player coming out of high school because of his body makeup and the like. This is not an exact science.
“This kind of thing from time to time happens. It doesn’t happen very often, and it doesn’t mean, ‘Hey, go recruit guys that are unknown because they’re going to turn into Ja Morant and Stephen Curry.’ That’s not the way it works either. Players get better.”
The Redhawks (9-19, 4-11) fell to Austin Peay 83-70 their last time out. Sophomore guard Ledarrius Brewer, the team’s leading scorer at 13 points per game, managed just seven points in 24 minutes, turning the ball over five times to just one assist.
After scoring at least 22 points in three straight games, he’s failed to score more than 11 in each of his last six.
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