Texas Pan American and Murray State End Streaks

Two of the nation’s longest streaks came to an end Saturday night, though only one of the teams was happy to see its end.

Texas Pan American stopped its NCAA record 64-game road losing streak, defeating Oral Roberts, 79-62, at Tulsa, Okla.

But at Murray, Ky., the nation’s longest home winning streak came to an end at 47 as Murray State lost to Southeast Missouri, 84-78.

Brian Merriweather scored 26 points to lead Texas Pan American (7-9), which had not won in an opponent’s building since a 58-54 victory over Lamar on Feb. 27, 1995.

“This is a great victory for the program and the university,” first-year Coach Bob Hoffman said. “I’m just honored to be a part of this win. We were fortunate to have a big enough lead that the runs didn’t hurt us as much.”

Texas Pan American closed the first half with a 17-6 run, then scored the first 15 points of the second half to build a 52-27 lead. Oral Roberts (7-9) used a 17-2 burst to get within 54-44 with 10:23 left. But that was as close as it got.

Four players scored in double figures for Southeast Missouri (12-3, 5-1 Ohio Valley Conference), led by Mike Branson with 19 points. Roderick Johnson and Antonio Short each added 17 and Michael Stokes had 15.

Southeast Missouri led, 35-33, at the half.

Murray State (10-5, 3-1) built a 12-point lead at 55-43 with 12:45 left in the second half. But Southeast Missouri rallied to go up 63-57 despite Coach Gary Garner being ejected after his second technical foul.

Back-to-back layups by Aubrey Reese and Ray Cunningham cut the lead to 81-78 with 25 seconds left, but the Racers would get no closer as Southeast Missouri made three of four free throws in the final 25 seconds.