OMAHA, Neb. — Arkansas’ Gage Wood pitched the third no-hitter in Men’s College World Series history and first in 65 years Monday, striking out a record 19 and never letting Murray State come close to getting a hit in the Razorbacks’ 3-0 victory.

Wood joined Jim Ehrler of Texas in 1950 and Jim Wixson of Oklahoma State in 1960 as the only pitchers to throw MCWS no-hitters, and his defense was never really challenged as he dominated a Racers team that was making its first Omaha appearance.

The junior right-hander, who set the MCWS record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game, was subdued in the aftermath.

“The only special thing was I didn’t want to go home. That’s it,” he said. “We’re not going home. We get to play tomorrow night. But it’s pretty cool.”

Arkansas (49-14) plays another elimination game Tuesday night against the loser of UCLA-LSU, which was suspended Monday night and will resume Tuesday morning.

Murray State (44-17), only the fourth No. 4 regional seed since 1999 to reach Omaha, went 0-2 in its first appearance.

Wood’s bid for a perfect game ended in the eighth when his 2-2 breaking ball hit Dom Decker in his back foot.

“When I hit the guy in the foot, I knew I screwed up,” said Wood, who got a foul out and consecutive strikeouts to end the inning, then looked skyward and gave a primal scream and did a couple of high steps as he headed to the dugout.

The Arkansas faithful behind the first-base dugout did a brief “Woo Pig Sooie!” chant as Wood warmed up for the ninth.

Wood (4-1) hit pinch hitter Nico Bermeo in the back of his left elbow with a fastball to start the ninth. Bermeo initially was awarded first base, but Arkansas challenged the call, arguing Bermeo moved his elbow into the pitch. The call was overturned and Bermeo was out.

Wood struck out Connor Cunningham and Jonathan Hogart to finish the game. He was mobbed by teammates, with the celebration moving from behind the mound to the area between second and third base.

“Gage was just executing pitch after pitch, getting ahead in the count and elevating his fastball in and out. What a great job,” coach Dave Van Horn said. “The few plays we had to make behind him — maybe nine, eight? — just glad we made all those plays.”

Wood went to three-ball counts just twice, and 83 of his 119 pitches were strikes.

The closest Murray State came to breaking up Wood’s no-hitter was Carson Garner’s hot grounder that pulled first baseman Reese Robinett to his left. Robinett snagged the ball and touched the bag for the last out of the seventh inning.

Wood showed early signs that this could be a special day. He had excellent command of his signature four-seam fastball, breaking ball and changeup. Of his first 20 fastballs, 19 were strikes, and he fanned nine of the first 12 batters he faced — seven in a row from the third to fifth innings.

Wood has gone from closer as a freshman to middle reliever as a sophomore to weekend starter as a junior. He injured his right shoulder throwing a warmup pitch in his Feb. 23 start against Michigan and didn’t return until April 18 against Texas A&M, a total of 54 days.

He threw a career-long six innings and struck out a career-high 13 against Creighton in a June 1 regional game against Creighton, then went 3⅓ innings in a super regional win over Tennessee on June 8.

Wood now joins Ehrler and Wixson in MCWS lore. Ehrler’s no-hitter came in Texas’ 7-0 win over Tufts on June 19, 1950, and Wixson’s came in a 7-0 victory over North Carolina on June 15, 1960.

Asked what he did with the game ball, Wood said, “I gave it to my dad and said happy late Father’s Day.”

The Razorbacks broke open the game after Murray State’s Graham Kelham relieved Isaac Silva to start the seventh. SEC player of the year Wehiwa Aloy doubled in a run, and another scored when right fielder Dustin Mercer tried to make a shoestring catch on Logan Maxwell’s shallow fly and the ball got under his glove.

Silva kept his team close in his six innings, with Charles Davalan’s third-inning RBI single producing the only run against him.

Silva allowed six hits, walked two and struck out seven. He repeatedly got out of trouble, holding the Razorbacks to 2-for-10 hitting with runners in scoring position and stranding two runners in the third, fifth and sixth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Game 5 of the NBA Finals was starting to look like Game 1 all over again. The Oklahoma City Thunder took a huge lead at home. The Indiana Pacers came roaring back in the fourth quarter.

Indiana won that one.

This time, the Thunder crafted a different ending — and a 3-2 lead in the Finals was their reward.

Jalen Williams scored a career-playoff-high 40 points, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 and the Thunder moved one win from a title by beating the Pacers 120-109 on Monday night.

“We’re learning,” said Williams, whose previous playoff best was 34.

It was the 10th — and by far, the biggest — time the Thunder stars combined for more than 70 points in a game. Williams was 14-of-24 from the field, and Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 assists. The pair combined to score or assist on 103 points, the most by a duo in an NBA Finals game in the past 50 years, according to ESPN Research.

“It wasn’t a perfect game at all, and there’s a lot of room for growth,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “But our improvement from Game 4 to Game 5 was critical.”

Pascal Siakam had 28 points for Indiana, which will host Game 6 on Thursday night. TJ McConnell added 18 for the Pacers, who whittled an 18-point deficit down to two in the fourth — then watched the Thunder pull away again, and for good.

“It kind of went away from us,” Siakam said. “But the fight was there.”

It was, but now everything favors the Thunder.

Teams that win Game 5 of an NBA Finals that was tied at 2-2 have gone on to win the series 23 times in 31 previous opportunities, or 74%. And teams with a 3-2 lead in the finals have won 40 times in 49 previous opportunities, or 82%.

But Game 5 was not easy. Far from it.

Down by 18 late in the second quarter, the Pacers — the comeback kings of these playoffs, with as many wins in this postseason from 15 points down or more (five) than the rest of the league has combined, including in Game 1 of this series — did what they do, chipping away. And they did it with Tyrese Haliburton reduced to basically playing decoy on offense because of a leg issue that he aggravated in the first quarter.

“He’s not 100%,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s pretty clear.”

Led by McConnell, who scored 13 points in just under seven minutes of the third, the Pacers got within five late in that quarter.

Then, Siakam went to work — a pair of free throws with 9:19 left got Indiana within four, then a 3-pointer about a minute later made it 95-93. In the play-by-play era of the NBA, starting with the 1997 playoffs, teams with leads of 15 points or more in the Finals were 80-9.

Make that 81-9 now, and the Thunder are one win away from giving Oklahoma City its first NBA title.

“That was honestly the same exact game as Game 1,” Williams said. “Learning through these finals, that’s what makes a team good.”

One more win, and his team will be certified as great.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.