Regular-Season Finale Against Eastern Kentucky a Must-Win for Racers

Saturday, February 26

CFSB Center

5:15 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Kentucky

The Racers need to beat EKU to keep their hopes of advancing to the OVC Championship alive.

Photo by: Fred Mullane

Regular-Season Finale Against Eastern Kentucky a Must-Win for Racers

2/25/2011 2:38:07 PM | Women's Basketball

Game 29
Murray State (8-20, 4-13 OVC) vs. Eastern Kentucky (6-20, 3-14 OVC)
Location: Murray, Ky.
Arena: CFSB Center
Time: 5:15 p.m.

The Game
The Murray State women's basketball team is in a must win situation heading into the final regular-season game of the 2010-11 campaign. The Racers (8-20, 4-13 OVC) need to earn a win over visiting Eastern Kentucky, Saturday, Feb. 26 to still have a chance to make the Ohio Valley Conference Championship. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. at the CFSB Center.

Game Notes
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Scouting Eastern Kentucky
The Lady Colonels are 6-20 overall and 3-14 in the league after losing their last six games. EKU has struggled on the road this season, going 0-12.

The Lady Colonels have three main shooters this year, all averaging over 12 points per game and the next player on the list netting just 6.7. Alex Jones leads the team with 14.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, while also shooting at a .472 clip from the field and adding 41 steals. Brittany Coles is second with 13.2 points per outing, a 39.2 shooting percentage and a 38.5 three-point shooting percentage. The final member of the trio is Marie Carpenter, with 12.8 points, a 36.0 shooting percentage and a 32.0 three-point percentage.

While EKU may have a losing record it has been in most of its games, having lost 14 by less than 10 points, averaging just 5.1 less points than its opponents. The Lady Colonels are trailing their opponents in shooting percentages, with a .375 to .402 mark overall and .296 to .324 clip from beyond the arc. EKU is also close in the rebounding margin, at just -3.5.

The first half of play seems to be better for the Lady Colonels on the defensive side of the court. EKU has allowed its opposition to tally 173 more points in the second stanza. While being out-scored in both halves, the Lady Colonels have garnered just 16 less points in the first half and 121 less in the second from their opponents.

Against the Lady Colonels
The Racers were led by sophomore Mariah Robinson and red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey in the first meeting with EKU this season. Robinson tallied 21 points and added five rebounds, while shooting .750 from three-point range (3-of-4) and adding three steals and two assists. Winfrey led MSU with six rebounds and 17 points. Junior Kayla Lowe was also in double figures in scoring, with 15.

The Racers shot .414 (29-of-70) from the field and .333 (6-of-18) from beyond the arc. However, the Lady Colonels hit 41.0 percent of their shots from the field and 45.2 percent from three-point range. The difference in the game came down to rebounds and free-throws. EKU earned a 51-29 rebounding advantage, including a 14-4 lead on the offensive glass. The Colonels also made 19-of-23 shots from the charity stripe, while only allowing MSU to get to the line 12 times (nine makes).

Alex Jones led EKU with 11 points and 18 rebounds, while Renee Bass added 23 points, Cherie White contributed 20 and Marie Carpenter tallied 16.

The Series
The Lady Colonels are one of four teams in the OVC that have an advantage in the all-time series, at 51-28. EKU earned the last victory, but MSU is 3-2 in the last five meetings. The Lady Colonels also took the win in the last meeting in Murray, Ky., pushing their advantage there to 25-14, but the Racers won the previous four meetings on their home court.

Tournament Hopes
The top six teams in the OVC standings (TTU, Morehead State, UTM, EIU, APSU & JSU) have all clinched at least a spot in the 2011 OVC Championship to be hosted at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., March 2-5. MSU is among the remaining four teams that are all battling for the remaining three spots in the tournament. The Racers need to beat EKU and then will have to wait for the rest of the games to conclude to determine if they make the tournament based on tie-breaker sceneries.

Winfrey Making Her Mark
Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey has now tallied double-doubles against the same team twice this season, against both UTM and EIU. She has a chance to add a third team to the list Thursday when the Racers face the Eagles. Winfrey is also closing in on the top-10 lists for double-doubles in a season (No. 9 -11(2)) and career double-doubles (No. 10 -14).

Defensive Special
The Racers had a great defensive performance against Southeast Missouri (Feb. 17) at the Show Me Center. MSU held the Redhawks to just 34 points for the game, the lowest point total for an opponent in a game since Nov. 22, 1976 when the Racers defeated Vanderbilt, 59-32, on the road. MSU also held SEMO to just 22.8 percent shooting, including a 1-21 mark (.048) from beyond the arc.

Kayla Khiming In - Again
Junior Kayla Lowe started out the season by tallying double-digit point totals in seven of the first 10 games, but has only added five more since. One of those occasions was against the Redhawks (Feb. 17), when Lowe went 5-of-9 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range to garner 15 points. It was her first 10+ game since Feb. 3 (13 at TSU) and her highest total since Dec. 30 (18 vs. SIUE).

Schwab Adding Spark
Junior Mallory Schwab has been stepping up her output in the past few weeks and earned a starting role back. Schwab had started the first nine games of the year, but did not start again for 14 games. Since returning to the top of the line-up, the Martinsville, Ind., native has added a spark to the team. In the game against Jacksonville State, Schwab tallied a season-best 14 points, shot 62.5 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc and added three boards and two assists.

Robinson Raining Three's
Sophomore Mariah Robinson had the game of her career Jan. 13 in Jacksonville, Ala. The Beaver Dam, Ky., native recorded the second-most points in school history (44) and tallied a school-record nine three pointers. The previous record was set by Megan Fuqua and her current coach Ashley B. Hayes (8). Robinson also added a career-best nine free throws and 13 field goals. She was not just a scoring threat for MSU in the game, as she added eight rebounds and three assists.

Academic Honors Again
Junior Rachael Isom was named to the Capital One Academic All-District IV second team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor marks the second-straight season that Isom has been named to the second team. The award also makes it the fourth-straight season that a Racer player has been named to the All-District IV team. Isom carries a 4.00 grade point average in English literature. The Cleveland, Tenn., native leads the team with 51 assists this season while also recording 7.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game.

To be consider for the Academic All-District teams, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore in eligibility and own a minimum 3.30 grade-point average.

Double Double-Double Nights
For the second time this season two members of the team garnered double-doubles on the same night. Sophomore Mariah Robinson earned her second of the season, with 25 points and a career-best 14 rebounds against UT Martin. Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey added her sixth of the year, with 11 points and 13 rebounds. This marked the first time since the 2000-01 campaign that MSU had two players with double-doubles in the same game twice in a season.

In the win over Eastern Illinois (Jan. 20), the Racers had two players earn double-doubles for the first time since Dec. 18, 2008 when Ashley N. Hayes (14 pts., 12 reb.) and Amber Guffey (20 pts., 11 reb.) each had one. Robinson earned her first career double-double, with 29 points and 11 rebounds, while Winfrey earned her fourth of the season (11 pts., 10 reb.).

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).