Murray State
Ball State
Remington scores 29, Hayes 25 in Lady Racers' win at Ball State
11/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior guard Rebecca Remington scored a career-high 29 points and sophomore guard Ashley Hayes arched in a career-high 25 as the Murray State Lady Racers upended host Ball State 87-76 this afternoon.
Remington hit 12 of her 21 shots from the field and handed out a game-high six assists. Hayes, a native of Kokomo, Ind., had family and friends watch as she popped in seven of her 14 three-point attempts, shooting 9-for-18 from the field to go with four rebounds and three assists. Her seven treys is one short of the school single-game record, set last season by Megan Fuqua.
The Lady Racers played a complete game, committing only seven turnovers while forcing 18. After claiming only three offensive rebounds in its previous game, Murray State grabbed 12 today, with nine of those coming in the first half.
"I was really pleased," said MSU head coach Joi Williams. "We did a much better job on the defensive end today. We sent them to the free-throw line too many times in the first half (Ball State was 11-for-12 from the line in the first half), but we did a much better job in the second half (4-for-5).
"We challenged our kids to play better and to go harder for the rebounds and go after the ball on every play. This will provide us with something we needed to build on."
Murray State (2-2) opened the game with an early 10-6 lead, but Ball State (2-2) used a 15-8 run to get out to a 21-18 lead midway through the first half. The Cardinals pushed out to a 26-22 lead, but the Lady Racers pushed right back, using a 14-4 run on the strength of three Hayes treys, a Hayes jumper and a free throw and a lay-in by Remington to take a 36-30 lead with 1:36 left in the half. BSU scored the last four points of the half from the line to narrow MSU's lead to 39-38 at halftime.
Ball State opened the second half on a 13-5 run, taking a 51-44 lead four minutes into the half, but that is when Murray State got things going. The Lady Racers went on a 16-3 run that gave them the lead for good, tying the game at 51-51 on a lay-up by sophomore guard Gerraca Matthews and taking the lead for good on a lay-in by senior forward Kaleena Miller, giving MSU a 53-51 lead with 13:13 left in regulation.
Ball State cut the lead to one on a three-pointer, but Hayes struck with a jumpshot and a trey of her own to give MSU a 60-54 lead at the end of the 16-3 run.
The Cardinals cut the MSU lead to three midway through the second half, but Remington went on an 8-0 run all her own, hitting two free throws and three lay-ups to push the Lady Racers' lead to 70-59 with just under nine minutes to play. MSU took its largest lead at 87-74 with a minute left in the game.
Freshman guard Shaleea Petty added 12 points for Murray State and had a game-high three steals to go with four assists. Miller grabbed a co-game-high nine rebounds for the Lady Racers.
For Ball State, Raechelle Hampton and Krista Stewart led five Cardinals in double-figures with 15 points apiece. Becca Bajorek added 13 points and had nine rebounds, while Kate Endress and Tina Bolte each put in 10.
Kelsey Corbin handed out five assists for BSU, while Stewart grabbed eight rebounds.
Murray State has the rest of the week off before visiting Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday at 7 p.m.
