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Belmont (14-5, 5-1) at Murray State (13-5, 6-0) – 7:00 PM EST (ESPN2)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Murray, Kentucky for the OVC’s signature rivalry in recent years – the hometown Racers of Murray State will host the Belmont Bruins in a matchup of two of the top three teams in the conference. Belmont has had an up and down season with wins at Boston College and at Western Kentucky, yet has had a couple of baffling losses at Illinois State and at home against SIU-Edwardsville to open conference play. The loss to SIU-E appears to be a blip on the radar in conference play as the Bruins have now won five straight games, including a home sweep of Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky last week. Adam Kunkel (16.9 PPG, 40.4% 3-PT) and Nick Muszynski (15.8 PPG/6.8 RPG) provide a nice inside/outside combo.
Murray State also had a slow start with a sixth place finish in the Gulf Coast Showcase with losses against La Salle and Drake and also had a loss at Missouri State before beginning a stretch of winning nine out of their last ten games. That one loss was at Evansville – that was a game that would turn out to be Walter McCarty’s last victory at Evansville before his leave of absence and subsequent firing. Tevin Brown averages 17.7 points a game for the Racers and is also shooting a hot 43.4% from 3-point range.