Murray State University Athletics
Lady Racers To Visit Cincinnati
11/26/2006 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Murray State Lady Racers conclude a challenging three-game road swing with a game at Cincinnati on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT.
Murray State (2-2) goes into its game against the Bearcats (4-0) after giving regional rival Western Kentucky a run for its money on Nov. 20. The Lady Racers trailed 30-25 at halftime of that game and lost by a 67-60 margin, holding the Lady Toppers to 35.8-percent shooting from the floor.
"The last couple of games, we've made some improvements," said MSU head coach Joi Felton, "and that's something we need to work on as we approach the OVC schedule. We want to keep making improvements each time out. We have a lot of respect for all of our opponents, but we have to go into each game and be aggressive and play good defense and rebound.
"One thing that we did a much better job of at Western Kentucky was we played better transition defense. They are a team that can get up and down the floor and play a lot of defense. That's one thing we focused on, and we'll see the same thing at Cincinnati. We've got to continue to get better at rebounding the ball and get better defensively.
"We also improved on our defensive field-goal percentage and scoring defense," she said. "We did a much better job, as opposed to the Southern Illinois game, where we played very poorly on the defensive end. We've got to get better with those things, because we will continue to take the show on the road for our first OVC games. Any time you go on the road, you have got to play good defense and rebound and be consistent. Your offense might not be there -- like we saw at Western, where we shot the ball poorly in the first half -- but because of our defense, we were able to stay in it, only down five at halftime."
Cincinnati opened the season with a win at Youngstown State (85-78), then won the next three games at home over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (89-65), Dayton (65-60) and St. Francis (83-51). The Bearcats' game against MSU closes the four-game homestand.
"Cincinnati is very guard-oriented," Felton said. "Their guards are extremely talented. They like to push the tempo, and they're very aggressive. One thing that concerns me is that Cincinnati is averaging 17 offensive boards a game. That shows how aggressive they are going after the rebounds. They also average 25 free-throw attempts per game. Both of those stats really tell a lot about how aggressive they are as a team, and that's one thing we've got to match. We've got to match their aggression and intensity, and we've got to execute on offense."
UC head coach Laurie Pirtle is seeking her 300th win in her 21st season at the helm of Cincinnati. Former Jacksonville State head coach Dave Dagostino is an assistant coach with the Bearcats.
Murray State is led by senior forward Joi Scott, who averages 20.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Amber Guffey has 14.3 points and 3.3 assists per game, while sophomore guard Ashley Nichole Hayes has 12.8 points and 8.0 boards per contest.
MSU is shooting .419 as a team from the field to Cincinnati's .466, but is hitting 76.8 percent of its free-throw attempts to the Bearcats' 59 percent.
Cincinnati is paced by Shelly Bellman's 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. She also has 3.5 assists per game and a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio. Karen Twehues is next at 12.0 points per game to go with 4.3 rebounds per contest, while Emy Ogide has 10.8 points per game. Treasure Humphries has 9.8 points and 4.0 assists per game, while Carla Jacobs has 9.3 points and 4.8 assists per game to go with a 3.2 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Bearcats are averaging 20.5 assists and 11 steals per game, while the Lady Racers average 11.0 assists and 10.3 steals per contest.
LIVE INFO: Murray State fans can hear all the action live through WNBS (1340 AM, Murray) or through the live audio link at www.GoRacers.com. Cincinnati is offering live stats through GameTracker at the link given at the top of this article.
