Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Racers Start OVC Play With Victory Over Eastern Kentucky
12/4/2008 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
A strong shooting and defensive night allowed the Murray State women's basketball team to earn a 73-61 victory over Eastern Kentucky in the first Ohio Valley Conference game of the 2008-09 campaign.
The Racers (4-3, 1-0 OVC) were led by senior Ashley Hayes, who tallied 25 points and eight rebounds. MSU also saw strong double-digit performances from seniors Amber Guffey and Paige Guffey, and junior Mallory Luckett. All three Racers tallied 11 points, with the total being a career-high for Luckett.
“Mallory had some good games in Colorado, but tonight she really stepped up both defensively and offensively,” said head coach Rob Cross. “She had a career night tonight offensively and that is what we needed to see from her. She has become more confident in her shot and it showed tonight.”
After the Colonels (2-4, 0-1 OVC) earned the first points of the half, 30 seconds into the game, the Racer defense that MSU showed in the final 10 minutes of the second half against Colorado State continued. The Racers held EKU scoreless until 14:42 remained on the clock, while tallying 12 points of their own. The streak included six points from Hayes. MSU allowed the Colonels just two shots through the net and then kept them off the scoreboard from 13:55 to 10:14, pushing its lead to 14 (20-6) with a 6-0 run.
The tough Racer defense continued with MSU taking a 25-9 advantage with another 5-0 run over the next five minutes. EKU made a push late in the opening stanza to cut the lead from 16 to as low as 10 (31-21). In the final three minutes of the half the Colonels went on an 8-4 run, but the Racers headed into the locker room with a 35-23 advantage.
Turnovers were key in the first half of play as EKU committed 11 to MSU's six. The Racers capitalized on the Colonels ball control problems, scoring 13 points off turnovers.
The intermission seemed to help EKU, as they came out of the locker room ready to play strong defense and sink shots. In the first five minutes of the game the Colonels went on a 7-2 run to cut the lead to five points. Freshman Mallory Schwab then hit a triple to spark a Racer 5-0 run over the next two minutes. The Colonels then got back into the swing of sinking shots and hit two shots from beyond the arc in a row to cut the advantage to six points (42-38).
After another 5-0 MSU run EKU cut the lead to four (47-43) with a 5-0 run of their own with around 9:30 left in the second half. The Colonels continued to fight and held the Racers to just three points over the next four minutes while tallying five of their own to cut the advantage to two points (50-48). Luckett then drained her career-best second shot from three-point range on the night to help start a MSU 6-0 run to extend the lead back to seven (56-49) over a 2:30 span.
With three minutes remaining in the game the teams traded baskets and points, but the advantage that the Racers had built was enough to give them the 73-61 victory.
“When the game was on the line Amber Guffey, Ashley Hayes, Paige Guffey, and Mallory Luckett stepped up and made huge plays for us,” Cross said. “For Ashley Hayes to come out tonight and produce like she is capable of was big. We need to have those kinds of performances from her if we are going to win this season.”
MSU shot 50 percent (25-of-50) from the field during the game to the Colonels 38.6 percent (22-of-57) to help lead the Racers to the win. MSU also capitalized with 25 points off EKU's 19 turnovers to help with the difference in the score. The Colonels earned an advantage in the rebounding column, 36 to 30, including a 12 to six mark on the offensive boards.
“Offensively tonight we were shooting 50 percent from the floor and I will take that any night,” said Cross.
Another key to the win was holding EKU's Kayla Drake to just 11 points. Drake came into the game averaging 19.6 points per game for the Colonels. Nadia Mossong was the team's leading point scorer with 21.
MSU will continue its road swing with a stop in Morehead, Ky., to face conference foe, Morehead State. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CST), Saturday, Dec. 6.
Notes: Ashley Hayes had double digits in the points column before the third media timeout in the first half at 7:57... Mallory Luckett Jana Roney had career-highs for rebounds (5) and free-throws made (3). recorded career-best in free-throw made (5) and three-pointers made (2)...rookie
Quotes
Head Coach Rob Cross
“Eastern Kentucky does a great job of forcing you to play a slow game and they did that with us tonight. They try to take away your biggest strength and they did a good job of that.”
“Eastern Kentucky killed us on the offensive boards. It wasn't going to get the rebound it was balls hitting the floor and them [EKU] beating us to those balls.”
“We made the plays that needed to be made down the stretch, especially in your first conference game on the road.”
“Kayla Drake's points came late in the game so Mallory Luckett did an outstanding defensive job on her tonight.”
“ Jana Roney came in and played a lot of key minutes for us tonight. She chased down a lot of lose balls and came up with some big rebounds for us in the second half.”
