Murray State
UT Martin
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Lady Racers put it all together, shoot down Skyhawks 83-64
1/21/2006 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Coupled with Eastern Kentucky's 71-68 loss to co-leader Samford tonight, the Murray State win put the Lady Racers into seventh place, a half-game ahead of EKU and one game behind fifth-place teams Austin Peay, who was idle tonight, and Morehead State, who lost 71-62 to Jacksonville State. In other OVC action, Southeast Missouri won at co-leader Tennessee Tech 53-46, while Eastern Illinois beat Tennessee State 77-62.
"That was huge," said Lady Racer head coach Joi Felton. "We needed that, especially on the road. Any time you can win on the road, that's big. We played a great first half. In the second half, we had a couple of letdowns, but we'll take the win. I'm really proud of our team, and I hope we can build on this.
"We shot with a lot of confidence. That's what we've been talking a lot about in practice. We've got some great shooters on this team, and they came out ready to go tonight.
"I think it was a great team effort," she said. "Our bench did a great job tonight. I'm just so proud of how they came out and how focused they were."
The win also snapped an eight-game win streak for Tennessee-Martin in home games against MSU.
Murray State (5-10, 4-5 OVC) never ceded the lead after junior Erica Gordian hit the game's first basket, although the contest was tied twice in the first period.
After the Skyhawks (5-10, 3-6 OVC) pulled to within 20-19 when Keva Robinson hit a three with 10:08 left in the first half, MSU went on a 14-0 run over the next three minutes to vault out to a 34-19 lead. The Lady Racers scored the last 12 points of the half to go into the locker room with a 50-29 lead, the most points scored by MSU in the first half all season.
Murray State hit 20 of their 32 first-half shots from the field (62.5 percent) and eight of their 13 three-point attempts (61.5 percent). Freshman Amber Guffey had 12 of her team-high 18 points in the first half on 4-for-5 shooting, while junior Gerraca Matthews had 10 of her 12 points in the first 20 minutes on 5-for-7 shooting. Junior Joi Scott put in 10 of her 15 points in the opening frame as well.
Tennessee-Martin shot well in the first half -- 52 percent (13-for-25) -- with Crystal Fuller getting 11 of her game-high 19 points in the first period on 5-for-6 shooting. The Skyhawks picked up the pace inside in the second period, getting 14 points in the paint to MSU's four.
Guffey led the Lady Racers with 18 points off the bench, and was one of five MSU players with two assists. Guffey was 4-for-6 from three-point range, and she and her twin sister, Paige, combined for a 7-for-9 night behind the arc with 27 of MSU's 83 points. Paige was 3-for-3 from three-point range, and finished with nine points.
Scott had 15 points to go with five rebounds and two steals. Matthews put in 12 points and had two steals, while Gordian finished with 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a team-high three steals.
Freshman Ashley Nichole Hayes had nine points on 4-for-6 shooting to go with a co-game-high eight rebounds for MSU.
Tennessee-Martin was paced by Fuller's 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field to go with eight rebounds and four assists. Andreika Jackson added 17 points and six rebounds, while Deina Willingham scored 10 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and three steals, and Keva Robinson had 10 points, five assists and four steals.
Both teams shot well, with Murray State hitting 55.4 percent (31-for-56) from the field and Tennessee-Martin hitting 50 percent (26-for-52). The Lady Racers were 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from three-point range, however, while the Skyhawks were 3-for-12 (25 percent). MSU hit 76.9 percent of its free throws (10-for-13), while UTM hit 47.4 percent (9-for-19).
Murray State returns home to take on co-leader Tennessee Tech (12-5, 8-2 OVC) on Thursday at 5:15 p.m. in the Regional Special Events Center.
