Valpo’s Whitaker Enjoys Big Day as Late Surge Falls Shy at First-Place Murray State

Whitaker Enjoys Big Day as Late Surge Falls Shy at First-Place Murray State

The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team battled to within four in the closing minutes, but host Murray State remained undefeated in Missouri Valley Conference play and extended its winning streak to 11 with a 92-79 victory over the Beacons on Saturday afternoon at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky. Fifth-year senior Brody Whitaker (Greencastle, Ind. / Greencastle) enjoyed his top performance in a Valpo uniform with 19 points.

How It Happened

• The two teams were back-and-forth early, as Whitaker hit a pair of early 3s and there were four lead changes in the first four minutes. Valpo held an 8-7 edge at the first media timeout.
• The Beacons built up a 13-7 lead as Whitaker made his third field goal of the day and Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) swished in a 3, but Brayden Shorter hit a pair of triples for the Racers to get the hosts even at the 11:32 mark.
• Dease picked up his second foul, and Murray State went on a run when he was on the bench. The Racers scored six straight in a span of 1:46 to build up a 24-17 advantage with 8:24 on the first-half clock, when Valpo head coach Roger Powell Jr. used a timeout.
• Although Valpo hit a drought from the floor, they stayed in the game at the stripe as five different players combined to hit the team’s first 10 free-throw attempts of the game. Murray State still held a 33-27 edge at the under-4 media timeout of the first half.
• Murray’s Shorter hit another 3 in the closing seconds of the first half – his fourth of the game – giving the Racers their largest lead of the contest to that point at 45-36. The Racers made eight of their 15 first-half 3-point tries (53.3 percent).
• Murray State built up its largest lead to 12 at 16:38 of the second half, but the Beacons battled back including a traditional 3-point play by Dease that made it 52-45 at 15:21.
• Both teams locked in defensively during a stretch where neither team scored for over two minutes, but Murray maintained a 61-49 lead with 10:33 to play.
• Valpo continued to battle, as a 3 by Whitaker and buckets by Justus McNair (Joliet, Ill. / Joliet West) and freshman JT Pettigrew (Lisle, Ill. / Bolingbrook) cut what had been an 11-point deficit to four with 3:38 to play. The Beacons got within four again on a 3 by Chaney at the 2:57 mark, the Racers made a slew of free throws down the stretch to secure the victory. Dease fouled out with 2:37 left with Valpo down just four at that time.

Inside the Game

• Whitaker outdid his previous season high of 14 points, which came on Nov. 29 vs. Western Michigan. He scored in double figures for the first time in league play. Whitaker knocked down four 3s, his first time this year with more than two. Whitaker was 7-of-11 from the floor including 4-of-4 from 3.
• Five Beacons finished in double figures, the first time that has occurred since Dec. 22, 2024 vs. CCSJ and first against a D1 opponent since Nov. 27, 2024 vs. Northern Illinois.
• Pettigrew finished with 15 points, his fourth straight game with 15 or more.
• Dease’s foul trouble was a big factor as he finished with a team-best plus-minus of +4. He finished with 10 points in 24 minutes, reaching double figures for the fifth time in his last six games.
• McNair’s 12 points marked his second time with a dozen in the last three games and tied his output from Jan. 4 vs. UIC for his highest in league play this season.
• Freshman Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212 Sports Academy]) had 10 points and four assists, his first double-figure scoring output in the last five games but third straight game with at least eight.
• Junior Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary-of-the-Woods]) tallied eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds, setting a season best on the glass. He outdid his previous rebounding watermark of 11 that occurred on Nov. 16 vs. Bryant. Tupuola also rejected three shots, lifting his season total to 29 blocked shots.
• The Racers got big games off the bench from Roman Domon (18) and Shorter (17) as they outscored the Beacons 49-17 in bench points and had over half of their total points come off the bench. Starter Javon Jackson led the way with 21.
• Valpo continued to shoot at a high clip from 3, going 7-of-16 (43.8 percent), the team’s third straight game over 40 percent from long-range.
• Murray State had 19 second-half free-throw attempts to Valpo’s six. For the game, the Beacons were 18-of-22 at the line (81.8 percent), the team’s fourth straight game with 18 made free throws or more.
• The defeat came against a quality opponent as Murray State notched its 11^th straight win and currently sits all alone atop the MVC as the lone unbeaten in league play. The Racers have the top KenPom and NET ratings in the league.

Up Next

Valpo (8-9, 2-4 MVC) will stay south of home through the weekend and into next week, as this road trip continues on to Nashville on Saturday night in advance of Tuesday’s matchup with Belmont, which tips at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+. 

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