Murray State
Tennessee State
Lady Racers Clinch Hosting First-Round OVC Game
2/15/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Lady Racers clinched hosting a first-round game in the O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament and out-rebounded its opponent for the fourth straight game with an 81-60 win over visiting Tennessee State on Thursday. The win was the 50th career win for head coach Joi Felton.
Win the win, MSU (17-7, 13-4 OVC) can finish no lower than fourth place in the standings, as Tennessee Tech is in fifth place at 10-8. The top four seed host Seed 5 through 8 in the first round of the OVC tournament, which will be played on Tuesday, Feb. 27. The last time the Lady Racers hosted the first round was in the 1999-2000 tournament, when MSU beat Eastern Kentucky but fell in the semifinals in Nashville, Tenn.
Tennessee State (7-20, 4-14 OVC) kept the game close early on, pulling to within 11-10 when Tiffany Jackson hit a jumper with 13:09 left in the first half, but Murray State took off, scoring the next eight points to push out to a 19-10 lead. Four different Lady Racers scored in that run, with baskets from sophomore forward Ashley Nichole Hayes, senior forward Joi Scott, sophomore guard Amber Guffey and junior guard Alaina Lee. The Lady Tigers brought it back to within seven points, 27-20, but MSU went off on another run, scoring the next 11 points -- featuring layups from Scott and Hayes, two free throws by Hayes, a three-point play by Scott and a jumper by junior guard Shaleea Petty -- before closing out the first half with a 47-30 lead.
Murray State shot 64.3 percent (18-for-28) from the field in the first half and grabbed 15 rebounds, 11 on the defensive end. Tennessee State hit 41.9 percent (13-for-31) from the field and had 16 boards, seven on the offensive end.
Scott had a game-high 15 points at halftime, going 7-for-9 from the field and grabbing a co-game-high five rebounds. Hayes had 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the floor.
Jheri Booker led TSU with 10 points at the half to go with a co-game-high five rebounds.
Murray State maintained the high-intensity defense in the second half that it played in the first period, as the Lady Racers held TSU to the same shooting percentage (41.9 percent or 13-for-31) in that period as it had in the first. MSU shot 54.2 percent (13-for-24) in the latter half.
"Our goal is to win a championship," said Felton, "and we knew we have to take it one game at a time. We want to hang a banner in this building. That drove us tonight. Our kids were really motivated; they can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think that had a lot to do with (winning tonight). We came out with a lot of energy defensively, and really capitalized on a lot of the mistakes that they made early."
"We've been working real hard all year and all off-season," said Scott. "We try to keep our intensity high and crash the boards. We've been struggling a bit defensively on rebounding, so we've started blocking out and grabbing the boards and playing good defense."
Scott finished with a game-high 23 points, just one point shy of 17th place on the Lady Racers' all-time scoring list, now sporting 934 career points (Melissa Shelton (1980-84) is at No. 17 with 935 points). Scott was 10-for-13 from the field and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, six on the defensive end.
Hayes had 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting to go with four rebounds, while Lee had 10 points to go with five rebounds, all on the offensive end.
Petty set a career-high and tied a team season-high with nine assists, while Guffey handed out six. Petty also had five rebounds, and Scott and sophomore guard Paige Guffey each had a game-high two blocked shots.
Tennessee State was led by Jackson and Booker, who had 15 points apiece. Jackson was 7-for-9 from the field and had 13 of her points in the second half, while Booker grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, six on the defensive end. Tamira Rumph added 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting, while Kendra Appling had 10 points.
LaDona Pierce handed out a game-high 10 assists, while Appling had five. Appling also had a game-high three steals, while Taviunna Mayberry had five rebounds for TSU.
Murray State plays two of its last three games on the road, visiting Eastern Illinois on Saturday for a 2 p.m. game.
