Relentless defense out of the gate and balanced scoring spurred Murray State to a huge first half lead and the Aggies coasted to an 87-57 thumping of Jacksonville College in Josh Davis' head coaching debut Tuesday night at Beames Fieldhouse.
"I am super happy for our guys and it is a definite weight lifted off my shoulders after going into the first game as a head coach," Davis commented. "The effort the guys gave and energy and enthusiasm was so fun to watch. I am proud of them and proud to be the head coach at Murray State."
Sophomore K.J. Boone set the tone immediately with a blocked shot and rebound on Jacksonville's first possession as the Aggies yielded only 11 points in the game's opening 10 minutes, cashing in a plethora of forced turnovers by the Jaguars into transition points and a 30-11 advantage.
Murray State rode a 12-0 flurry early in the half and then utilized another 10-1 blitz just before intermission to increase the edge to 51-27 at the break. A big chunk of that production came at the free throw line where the Aggies were sensational in hitting all 15 attempts in the opening frame.
A 10-0 Jacksonville run at the outset of the second half narrowed the lead to 18 points, but the Aggies had the counter blow sparked by five consecutive points from freshman Brian Fuery. That led to a massive 19-4 burst that completely took the air out of the visitors' sails.
"Our guys got a lot of deflections early defensively and got Jacksonville out of sync," Davis said. "We were able to capitalize. A couple guys came off the bench and really gave us a spark. We had a lot of good shine through today.
"As a juco coach you always look for your guys to get recruited but with 12, 13 or 14 guys that can really play, the productivity gets spread around a lot, so I hope they can all keep that team mindset."
In total, 13 Aggies all registered points with eight scoring at least seven points each.
Freshmen Freddie Cooper and Fuery came off the bench and led the offensive charge with 13 and 12 points respectively while returnee A.J. Richard also reached double figures with 10 points.
Boone, Cordrayius Graham and Kyle Tolbert all had eight points with Dayten Holman and Ridley Shema each adding seven. Stanley Harley scored five, Jackson Lawley had three and T.J. Gardner, Brevon Ford and Jaelen Tucker all finished with two.
The Aggies will close a two-game opening homestand in their next outing at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Richland College.
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