Morant Wows The Nation
(St. Louis, MO) – He did it again! Ja Morant’s jaw dropping season continues to blow people away. Murray State easily defeated Marquette 83-64 and the super sophomore recorded the ninth triple-double in NCAA Tournament history. Morant scored 17 points, grabbed eleven rebounds and dropped 16 dimes.
Murray State moves on to meet Florida State and Morant has an even bigger stage from which to entertain. The nation’s leading assist man took just nine shots and quarterbacked the Racers (28-4) into the round of thirty-two and remained humble on the national scene. Morant sounds like Tom Brady saying ‘I’m just taking what the defense is giving me.”
“I was just reading the defense,” said Morant. “Early on I saw that they was trying to pack it in on my drive and whenever I have the ball. And that just opened up opportunities for my teammates to be open. So I just attack and just drive and kick or and have an easy dump now.”
The triple-double was Morant’s third of the season and his 16-assist performance is his ninth time topping the 13 assist plateau.
Head coach Matt McMahon says the Racers have been playing high-quality ‘team basketball’ all season.
“They had 6 assists and 12 turnovers while we were 23 assists to 12 turnovers,” said McMahon. “Our shot quality was very good offensively. I was saying it all year, Ja deserves every bit of credit he gets he and then some. But we have a very balanced team. Four guys in double figures. Tevin and Shaq were terrific today. Darnell around the basket and everyone who played contributed in different ways. It was a total team win for us.”
What about the “JA JAM”?
JA JAM! 🔨#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/aNiZCNwFah
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 21, 2019
What’s Next?
Murray State moves on to a 5:10 Saturday afternoon game with Florida State. The Seminoles (28-7) were 76-69 winners over Vermont. The fourth seeded ACC squad has won 15 of their last 17 games while the Racers have won 12 straight.
Coupled with Belmont’s ‘First Four’ win and opening round loss, the Ohio Valley Conference is 2-1 in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
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This was amazing.
Give the Myrtle Beach Invitational title to @BradleyUMBB! 80-69 is the final over Conference USA's Middle Tennessee. Christian Davis with 19 points. Deen with 15-4-5. @ValleyHoops soaring right now.
Well, @DariusHannah3 with a #ThunderDunk.
A couple of big opportunities in the post for Atlason, but not his strong suit and @BradleyUMBB come up empty. 13 point lead is now 5. Four Braves in double figures. @DariusHannah3 with a double-double.
