Murray State
Jacksonville State
Lady Racers slip in overtime, fall 85-83 to Jacksonville State
1/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
A breakaway layup by Jacksonville State's Cobie Carlisle with 2.5 seconds left in overtime decided another close-fought Ohio Valley Conference gme for Murray State's Lady Racers, handing the 85-83 decision to the Gamecocks.
Jacksonville State then called a timeout, and Murray State (5-9, 1-3 OVC) set up an inbounds play. One player tried to draw a foul, and senior guard Jenny Bowden ran the length of the court. She took a lon-distance pass from junior guard Brittany Park and drove the lane, but her potential game-tying layup came a half-second too late.
The Lady Racers opened the game by scoring the first five points of the game and pushed out to a 15-9 advantage when senior guard Megan Fuqua hit three free throws with 13:32 left in the first half.
Jacksonville State (8-5, 3-1 OVC) then went on a 9-0 run to take an 18-15 lead. After exchanging baskets, MSU went on an 8-0 romp of its own to take a 27-22 lead. Freshman guard Ashley Hayes hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 22-22, then junior guard Rebecca Remington hit a trey to give the Lady Racers a 25-22 lead. Sophomore center Lori Trumblee hit two free throws to cap the run.
The Lady Racers led 38-37 at halftime.
JSU led 41-39 early in the second half before Murray State made a run, outscoring the Gamecocks 8-0 on a layup by Park and two threes by Hayes. Jacksonville State battled the game back to its eighth tie before MSU worked its way to a 64-56 lead when Fuqua hit another three with 7:03 left.
Jacksonville State then went on a 9-0 run over the next 1:30 to take a 65-64 lead with 5:31 left. MSU got out to a four-point lead twice, the latest when Hayes hit a jumper with 2:05 left to give the Lady Racers a 73-69 lead, but JSU closed out the half with a 7-3 run to knot the game at 76-76 at the end of regulation.
Carlisle hit a jumper to open overtime, but a layup by senior guard Stacy Holmes tied the game again. A Freddricka Embry pushed the Gamecocks ahead again, but a three from Bowden gave Murray State an 81-80 lead with 2:47 left in overtime.
Carlisle made one of two free-throw attempts to tie the game again, and Kelly Nye hit a layup for JSU with 1:08 left to give JSU an 83-81 lead.
Remington hit a jumper with 54 seconds left in overtime, but the breakaway layup by Carlisle with 2.5 seconds left capped the game for JSU.
"We made some mental errors," said MSU head coach Joi Williams. "We didn't take care of the ball like we needed to, and we didn't match up well in transition late in the game.
"Jacksonville State did a good job, capitalizing on that. They made that easy basket, then we thought we'd get that foul call on the endline. We were seven-tenths of a second getting that shot off. It was kind of a 'Hail Mary,' but it just didn't work out for us."
Hayes led all scorers with 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Fuqua scored 14 points, while Park had 11 points and team-highs with four assists and three steals.
Holmes had her second straight double-double with 14 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, and had all three of the game's blocked shots.
Jacksonville State was paced by 18 points and 16 rebounds from Shanika Freeman, who sustained a head injury late in the Gamecocks' game at Tennessee-Martin on Thursday. Carlisle added 16 points, while Nina Bliss had 15 and Embry had 13.
Freeman had game-highs with five assists and six steals, going 8-for-8 from the line.
Murray State concludes its three-game homestand on Tuesday, when the Lady Racers welcome OVC rival Tennessee-Martin (5-9, 2-2 OVC). That game will tip off at 5:15 p.m., and can be heard on the Internet at www.GoRacers.com or on the air on WNBS (1340 AM).
