OVC – Battle of the Border

Games Could Decide the OVC Title

(St. Louis, MO) – They expect a sell out crowd for Thursday’s ‘Battle of the Border’. Austin Peay hosts Murray State in the first of two games between the ancient rivals. Two games that will go a long way to deciding the Ohio Valley’s regular season champion.

APSU (18-7, 10-2) and MSU (19-4, 10-2) are tied with Belmont for first place. Jacksonville State is one game back. Every other head-to-head matchup between the contenders is already completed. These two games are enormous.

The Battle of the Border is part of a season long competition between the schools across all sports. Murray leads this year’s competition 12-6.

These two teams are similar in so many ways.

The Coaches

Murray’s Matt McMahon is in his fourth season at the Racer helm and Governor head man Matt Figger is laboring in his second in Clarksville, Tennessee. They both have outstanding records. McMahon has won 78 of 119 games and Figger has triumphed 37 times in 59 tries.

Both are energetic, culture building, positive thinking recruiters and tacticians. Both have mid-major collegiate backgrounds and had several coaching stops along the way. Each had big shoes to fill.

Figger had to follow Dave Loos the winningest coach in APSU history and McMahon took over from current Iowa State coach Steve Prohm who posted a .782 winning percentage and took the Racers to postseason play in three of his four seasons.

Outstanding Sophomores

The whole basketball world knows about Murray State sophomore Ja Morant. The likely first round NBA draft pick is on Sports Center more than Marv Levy. But the reigning ‘Freshman of the Year’ is the Governors’ Terry Taylor. The 6’5 Taylor recently reached 1,000 career points and Thursday night he will grab his 500^th rebound.

Morant is the (well deserved) darling of college basketball. He leads the nation is assists and has handed 436 dimes in his almost two season at Murray while grabbing 332 rebounds. He leads the league in scoring and assists. Taylor is fourth in both scoring and rebounding. These two unparalleled sophomores are worth filling the Dunn Center by themselves.

Team Snapshots

They are the OVC’s second and third leading scoring teams and second and third best defensive teams with Murray leading in those comparisons. They are second and third in shooting percentage with Austin Peay coming out better and the Governors are the three-point percentage leaders.

The Rivalry

The teams are 66 miles apart. They have played 125 times with Murray winning 82 times. In Clarksville, it’s a different story, where the Racers lead the series 29-28. Figger is 0-2 versus the Racers. Murray was nine points better at Dunn Center last season.

What’s At Stake

With a three-way tie for first and Jacksonville State lurking, the winner is at worst left with tie for first with Belmont. The loser likely falls into a tie with the Gamecocks.

Not only is a conference title at stake, but multiple OVC tournament byes are on the line. The top two seeds heading into Evansville receive a double-bye into the tournament’s semifinals. Third and fourth place teams receive a single bye into the quarters.

The ‘Battle of the Border’ will catapult one of these teams into a tie-breaker mode that could land them the number one seed in Evansville.

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