Racers End Home Stand Against Austin Peay

Saturday, January 8

CFSB Center

1:15 p.m.

Murray State

Austin Peay

Junior Rachael Isom averaged 21.5 points per game against the Lady Govs last season.

Photo by: Tab Brockman

1/7/2011 11:46:51 AM | Women's Basketball

Game 15
Murray State (4-10, 0-4 OVC) vs. Austin Peay (4-13, 3-2 OVC)
Location: Murray, Ky.
Arena: CFSB Center
Time: 1:15 p.m.

The Game
The Murray State women's basketball team will conclude the longest home stand of the season when Austin Peay comes to the CFSB Center, Saturday, Jan. 8 for an approximate 1:15 p.m. tip-off. The game will start 30 minutes after the end of the men's game against the Governors that is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. and will be featured on ESPNU.

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Scouting Austin Peay
The Lady Govs are 4-13 overall, but are 3-2 in the league. APSU has lost its last four games, including an Ohio Valley Conference loss to UT Martin Thursday night. The Lady Govs and the Racers have had three common non-conference opponents this season in Purdue, Southern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville. APSU has lost to all three, while MSU earned a win over SIUE.

Whitney Hanley is the biggest threat across the box score. Hanley is averaging 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, while adding team bests of 49 assists and 32 steals. She is also the main shooter for the Lady Govs, taking 207 total shots and 112 of those coming from behind the arc. Jasmine Rayner has taken the second-most shots this season (142) and Brooke Faulkner has the second most three's taken (53). Hanley's shots account for 21 percent of APSU's total shots and 41 percent of the triples.

Rayner is also a key shooting and rebounding threat. She is connecting on 47.9 percent of her shots and has an average of 7.9 boards per game. Seventy-nine of her 134 total rebounds have come on the offensive end of the court.

The Lady Govs are being out-scored 11.4 points per game and that is largely due to the difference in team shooting percentages. APSU has a .378 mark this season, but their opponents have made 43.9 percent of their shots. The difference is also noticeable from three-point range at .307 to .351.

The one area where the Lady Govs have a slight advantage is in rebounds, with a +0.8 mark this season. APSU is grabbing 36.7 rebounds per game to 35.9 by the opposition.

Against the Lady Govs
In two games last season junior Rachael Isom had two of her best performances. Isom averaged 21.5 points per game and shot .567 (17-of-30) from the field and .500 (4-of-8) from beyond the arc. In one game against the Lady Govs, fellow junior Kayla Lowe recorded eight points and two rebounds.

The games with APSU were shoot-outs. The Racers shot .429 from the field and .424 from beyond the arc, while the Lady Govs hit .447 and .367 marks. Another key statistical area was rebounds, where APSU earned a 43.5 to 32.5 advantage.

The Lady Govs have three returners from the series that averaged over 10 points per game. Whitney Hanley leads the trio with 13 points per game, while Jasmine Rayner added 12.5 and Brooke Faulkener contributed 11. Rayner was also key on the boards, averaging 13.5 rebounds.

The Series
The Racers currently own a 42-37 advantage in the all-time series, but APSU has been trying to chip away at the lead and has won the last three games. The teams have traded runs and games to have an even 5-5 mark in the last 10 meetings. Each team has done better on their home courts, with MSU holding a 27-12 advantage when playing in Murray.

Double-Double for Lowe
Junior Kayla Lowe garnered her second double-double of the season, and her career, in the Racers game versus TSU. Lowe earned the double-double in the final minute of the game when she hit a three to get MSU within one point. That shot gave her 12 points to go along with a career-high 10 rebounds.

Elkins Elevating Performance
After playing sparingly in the first few games of the season, sophomore Tessa Elkins has become a key reserve in the lineup over the past four games. Elkins has played double-digit minutes in MSU's last four games and has recorded 10-or-more points in three of those outings. In the game against TSU, she added a season-best five rebounds and a career-high five field goals made. The Cincinnati, Ohio, native has also shot .684 from the field and .571 from beyond the arc.

Racking Up the Rebounds
Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey was ratcheting up her rebounding numbers from Dec. 18-Jan. 4. Winfrey garnered at least 10 rebounds during the four games, making her the first player since Ashley N. Hayes had the same streak in the 2008-09 season. She is also just the fourth MSU player to accomplish the feat since the 1996-97 campaign. Danelle Watts had a series of four games with 10+ boards in the 1998-99 season and Stephanie Minor went six and seven games in-a-row during the 1996-97 campaign.

Putting It All Together
The Racers had a season-best game against the Jaguars, with the largest win of the season. The 29-point win was not the only season-best for MSU. The Racers shot 50.9 percent overall and 47.4 percent from three-point range. The percentage from the field was a season-best, while the mark from beyond the arc was the second-best this year. MSU also out-rebounded IUPUI by 15, the largest margin in 2010-11, and recorded a season-high nine triples.

Robinson Stepping Up In Conference Play
Sophomore Mariah Robinson has stepped up her performance since the start of the OVC season. She has recorded a double-digit point total in three league games, with 21, 20 and 19 points. The Beaver Dame, Ky., native has also shot .415 from the field and .440 from beyond the arc in the four league games, made 12-of-14 free throws and added three blocks and 10 steals.

Career Night Against the Cougars
Several players saw career highs increased in the Racers game against SIU Edwardsville. Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey started the trend by recording 17 rebounds, 10 in the first half. The 17 boards are the most by a Racers player since Nov. 28, 2009 when Mallory Luckett garnered 15 rebounds against Morgan State.

MSU also saw four players record double-digit point totals for the first time in 2010-11 and two of those were career bests. Freshman Mary Jehlik garnered her first double-digit total, with 13 and sophomore Tessa Elkins continued to added to her career number with 12.

Mary Moving In
Freshman Mary Jehlik has earned a starting role in the last five games. The Mount Sterling, Ky., native has tallied career bests in points, rebounding, assists, free throws and shooting percentage since her advancement on the bench. She recorded a career-high eight rebounds against IUPUI, and has increased her scoring best to 14. She also tallied career highs of four assists and free throws against the Jaguars.

Jessica Jumping Right In
Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey has been a stable force for the Racers in her first season on the court. The Marion, Ark., native is first on the team in rebounding, averaging 8.6 boards per game, and third in scoring (9.5 ppg). She has tallied three double-doubles, including her latest versus IUPUI. Her talents on the court have led to her scoring at least one point and adding at least one rebound in every Racers game this season, while also recording 15 steals and five blocks.

No Senior Leadership
After fighting through an injury plagued year in 2009-10 the Murray State women's basketball team will be in a select group of NCAA DI teams this season that will allow them to use the drive and determination they discovered last year, as the roster has no seniors listed. The Racers are one of seven programs in the country with no seniors on the 2010-11 roster.

The youthful roster has just nine years of NCAA collegiate experience on it, which ranks third among OVC teams for the least amount of NCAA collegiate experience. The only teams with fewer years of experience than the Racers are UT Martin (3) and Eastern Illinois (8).

Up Next
The Racers will return to the road for two league games next week at Jacksonville State (Jan. 13) and Tennessee Tech (Jan. 15).