Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Lady Racers survive scare, push ahead to 70-62 win over EIU
2/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
After taking a 37-27 lead at halftime and pushing ahead in the second half to a 50-35 advantage, the Murray State Lady Racers staved off a hard-fought Eastern Illinois attack, claiming the 70-62 win in Charleston, Ill.,, tonight in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Senior guard Megan Fuqua marked her 100th career game with a career-high 26 points in leading all scorers. Her point total was also a single-game high for the Lady Racers. Murray State (9-11, 5-4 OVC) has won five of its last seven games and four of its last five, and now have a 2-2 OVC road record.
The Lady Racers opened the game scoring the first six points, but the host Panthers (6-14, 3-6 OVC) -- the only team to beat league leader Austin Peay thus far this season -- responded by scoring the next seven.
MSU then scored 12 unanswered points to zip out to an 18-7 lead with 11:19 left in the first half. The Lady Racers' lead sagged as low as five points in the half when EIU's Pam O'Connor hit a free throw to close the gap to 24-19 with 7:28 left in the half, but Murray State forged a 11-3 run to push out to its largest lead of the half when Fuqua popped a three to give MSU a 35-22 lead with 4:10 left in the period.
The Lady Racers would match that lead one more time before settling in with a 37-27 advantage at the intermission.
Eastern Illinois cut that lead to 39-33 with 18:12 left in the second half, but MSU went on an 11-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 50-35 lead with 15:13 remaining in regulation.
That's when the Panthers began their surge, scoring the next 12 points then, after a layup by junior guard Brittany Park gave Murray State a 52-47 lead with 9:14 left, EIU completed the comeback by scoring the next five points to tie the game at 52-52 with 7:55 left.
A Park free throw and a breakaway layup by senior guard Jenny Bowden wrested back the lead for Murray State. A free throw by sophomore center Lori Trumblee pushed the MSU lead to 56-52 with 5:44 left, but EIU's Sarah Riva popped a three to narrow the lead to one.
The Lady Racers scored the next seven points on a Park jumper, a free throw by freshman forward Angela Mullins, a Fuqua free throw and a Park jumper, to take a 62-55 lead with 1:41 remaining.
Eastern Illinois was able to cut the lead to four, but would come no closer, as junior guard Rebecca Remington hit two free throws with 20 seconds left and got a layup with seven seconds to ice the game.
"Tonight, we played together," Park said. "Last week (against Morehead State), when things got tough, we kind of went our own way, but when things got tough here, we all came together."
"Our first-half defense was good," said MSU head coach Joi Williams. "We did a good job of forcing turnovers (14 by EIU in the first half to MSU's five). We got a lot of offense through our defense. Our kids understand that, and came out with great intensity. Pam O'Connor is a good player for Eastern Illinois, and we did a good job on her tonight. We executed our game plan and stayed together when it got rough."
Fuqua scored 15 of her game-high 26 points in the first half, finishing the game on 7-for-14 shooting (4-for-9 from three-point range) with an 8-for-10 night from the line. She also had three assists.
Park finished with 12 points, a co-team-high six rebounds, a game-high four assists and a co-game-high four steals. Senior guard Stacy Holmes added 12 points, a co-team-high six rebounds and a co-game-high four steals.
Junior forward Kaleena Miller also grabbed a co-team-high six rebounds and had three steals. Bowden handed out two assists and had three steals.
Eastern Illinois was paced by O'Connor, who had 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Megan Sparks added 11 points for the Panthers. Melanie Ploger and Mehan Casad had a team-high three assists each, while Lauren Dailey took a team-high two steals.
The Lady Racers took only 19 second-half shots, but hit on 10 of them for a 52.6-percent second-half rate. MSU forced 21 EIU turnovers and committed 16.
Murray State continues this five-game road swing with a Saturday game at Southeast Missouri State (10-10, 5-4 OVC). That game will begin at 5 p.m. after the men's game (2 p.m., Fox Sports Net South), and can be heard through the Teamline links at www.GoRacers.com and locally through WNBS (1340 AM).
*OVC STANDINGS: For the fourth time in as many games, Murray State finds itself in a four-way tie in the Ohio Valley Conference standings, this time in fourth place at 5-4. The Lady Racers are tied with upcoming opponent Southeast Missouri, Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State. MSU is three games behind first-place Austin Peay (8-1 OVC), two games behind second-place Jacksonville State (7-2) and a game behind third-place Tennessee Tech (6-3).
