GAME NOTES: It is coming down to the wire in the 2015 NIT, as the Murray State Racers pay a visit to the Old Dominion Monarchs in the quarterfinals of the event at the Ted Constant Convocation Center on Wednesday night.

Third-seeded Murray State, which owned one of the longest winning streaks in the nation during the 2014-15 campaign, is now 4-7 in this event over the years and is trying to get to a neutral floor in the tourney for the first time. The good news at the moment is that the Racers are enjoying the nation's longest road win streak at 11 in a row, dating all the way back to November, just before their 25-game overall win streak began.

The Racers, who have won eight straight postseason contests dating back to the start of the CIT in 2014, began this tourney with an 81-66 win over UTEP at home eight days ago and followed that up with an 83-62 blowout of Tulsa on Monday night.

As for Old Dominion, a top seed in the event, it has posted 23 consecutive victories at home, which creates quite the story line for this particular clash. Unfortunately, the team was ushered out of the Conference USA Tournament by Middle Tennessee on March 12 by a score of 59-52, which is why it is in the NIT and not the NCAA Tournament.

The first two rounds of this event met with a 65-56 win over Charleston Southern a week ago, marking the 400th win in the career of head coach Jeff Jones, followed by a narrow 50-49 triumph over Illinois State two nights back on the road.

Coincidentally, Jones has had success in this tourney previously, leading the Virginia Cavaliers to the title back in 1992.

Murray State leads the all-time series by a 2-1 margin, but the Monarchs are the ones who posted a 70-60 victory in the most recent encounter at home back in 2013. The lone neutral-site matchup was a 76-61 MSU victory during the Puerto Rico Classic in 1990.

The winner of this game will head to New York City for the semifinals next week versus the Stanford Cardinal for the right to play for the title on April 2.

The Racers used an impressive 60.0 percent shooting from the floor in the first half two nights ago against Tulsa, which included 9-of-15 behind the 3- point line, to surge ahead at the break and never look back en route to the 21-point road victory. Before fouling out, Cameron Payne tallied 20 points and seven assists, hitting 5-of-8 shots beyond the arc, followed by Jeffery Moss and T.J. Sapp with 17 points apiece, combining for nine dishes and 7-of-13 out on the perimeter. Jarvis Williams posted 15 points before he too picked up his fifth personal, while Wayne Langston and Jonathan Fairell combined for 22 rebounds to help the unit overcome 20 turnovers.

What makes the Racers such a unique outfit is that they've played with the same starting lineup in all 34 games. Payne, who was named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week a total of five times this season, was also recognized as the OVC Player of the Year and is now averaging 20.1 ppg while handing out 203 assists. Williams accounts for another 15.7 ppg and while Payne directs traffic, Williams attacks the interior with his 8.4 rpg, which helps to give the unit a rebounding edge of close to four per game. Sapp and Moss account for 12.5 and 11.1 ppg, respectively, as the group generates an impressive 79.3 ppg.

A layup by Jonathan Arledge with 19 seconds remaining in regulation was just enough to get the Monarchs over the top against Illinois State by a single point on Monday night. Somehow, ODU survived a dreadful 36.4 percent shooting from the floor and a pair of late free-throw attempts by the Redbirds that both missed the mark in the close call. Arledge finished the outing with 10 points and six rebounds, while Keenan Palmore came within a rebound of a double-double as he produced 11 points for a squad that was just 5-of-17 behind the 3-point line and 5-of-11 at the charity stripe.

Arledge, who is now averaging 8.8 ppg, has tallied a total of 32 points in the last two games, a season-high 22 coming versus Charleston Southern, which is somewhat surprising given that he was held to single digits in the seven previous outings. Arledge trails only Trey Freeman (16.8 ppg) and Aaron Bacote (10.2 ppg) in the scoring department for a program that is generating 64.9 ppg on the campaign, but at the same time is one of the better defensive units in the country with just 56.5 ppg allowed.

As tight as the Monarchs run their defense, if Murray State is able to dictate the pace of this meeting with the efforts of Payne, that long-standing home win streak for ODU could be in jeopardy.