CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- After hitting his first few shots,

Isaiah Canaan was confident he was going to have a good night.

Canaan scored 35 points to keep Murray State (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) unbeaten

with an 87-75 victory Saturday night over Austin Peay. He scored

the first 16 points for the Racers (16-0, 4-0), who tied the best

start in school history -- matching the 1935-36 squad. He hit seven

of his eight 3-point attempts.

"I saw the first two go in and my eyes lit up," Canaan said.

"I started feeling like I could make the next shot and I had a lot

of open shots so I took them and my teammates did a good job of

finding me and I was knocking them down and was glad that the shots

I took was falling."

The game marked the 112th meeting between the conference rivals

in a series dating back 71 years in which Murray State leads 71-41.

Murray State, under the direction of first year coach Steve

Prohm, hit eight 3s in the first half to build a 17-point lead

before the Governors rallied with an 11-1 run shortly before the

end of the half.

"(Isaiah's) done this before," Prohm said. "I chased him

everywhere in AAU basketball. He's a special player, he's a gamer,

he plays big, the bigger the game the better he plays. The first

half, he was tremendous. I think he's one of the elite guards in

the country."

Ed Daniel had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Racers, who are

one of three unbeaten teams left this season. Syracuse and Baylor

also haven't lost.

"I knew Austin Peay would be extremely ready and I thought they

played extremely well," Prohm said. "I thought they did play

well. When we could have punched them and knocked them out they

responded each and every way making a play on both ends of the

floor at times but we were able to withstand the runs and our goal

was to try and get (the lead) back up to 10 and we were finally

able to get it."

Josh Terry scored 16 points to lead the Governors (3-13, 0-3).

"Nobody likes to lose and we're blessed to be 16-0," Canaan

said. "We feel good, we think we deserve it with all the hard work

we put in over the summer and all the hard work we continue to put

in everyday at practice going at each other, pushing each other and

trying to push each one to the next level because we know there are

going to be games like this on the road when we have to come

together and fight to the end of the clock."

Less than 5 minutes into the second half Donte Poole made

back-to-back 3s, giving the Racers a 12-point lead. Austin Peay

fought back and trailed by three before Daniel hit a free throw to

extend the lead with 5:26 left.

His basket made it 80-73 with 1:48 to seal the victory.

In the last minute of the game an intentional foul was called on

Melvin Baker and Daniel, who came up from the hard foul smiling,

took the line and went 1 for 2.

With 45.2 seconds on the clock the Murray State fans overtook

the Dunn Center with chants of 'Undefeated' as Murray State players

encouraged the cheers with pumping their arms in the air.

"It was an unbelievable atmosphere," Prohm said. "There was

an 'undefeated' chant at the end of the game with about 45 seconds

left and it was great but as a coach I thought it was a little

early."

Austin Peay will face Eastern Kentucky next Thursday while

Murray State will host Jacksonville State the same night.

"They've got a terrific basketball team," Governors coach Dave

Loos said. "Of course Canaan in the first half was incredible --

I've never seen anybody shoot any better than that. We tried

several different things, we had success in the second half in

trapping him and we intended to do that in the first half but

weren't as effective. They've got a very good team, I was very

impressed."