Murray State
Eastern Kentucky
Lady Racers Win OVC Opener 89-75
12/7/2006 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Murray State Lady Racers again lived up to their nickname, running and gunning their way to an 89-75 win at Eastern Kentucky in both teams' OVC opener. Senior Joi Scott was a scoring machine, leading the way with 27 points on 12-for-13 shooting from the floor, a perfect 8-for-8 in the first half. The Guffey twins went a combined 7-for-9 from three-point range in the game.
The Lady Racers (4-3, 1-0 OVC) maintained the fast paced they showed against Lipscomb in their last outing on Monday, running up and down the court and playing a tight, in-your-face defense against the Lady Colonels. Eastern Kentucky (3-6, 0-1 OVC) jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead, but Murray State came right back, using a 10-2 run to take a 12-8 lead. EKU came back to take a 16-15 lead, but MSU answered with a 12-2 run, taking a 27-18 lead with 7:43 left in the first half.
Eastern Kentucky cut that lead to 27-21, but the Lady Racers took off from that point, closing out the first half with a 19-10 scoring frenzy to take a 46-31 halftime lead.
In the first half, MSU shot 69.2 percent (18 for 26), going 12-for-14 (85.7 percent) inside the arc, 6-for-12 (50 percent) from three-point range. Murray State was led by Joi Scott, with 17 first-half points on 8-for-8 shooting from the floor. Scott also had a game-high eight first-half rebounds.
EKU was paced at the half by Andrea Jenkins' eight points. The Lady Racers out-rebounded EKU 15-9 in the first 20 minutes, and held the Lady Colonels' top scorer, Crystal Jones (averaging 19.4 points per game before this game), to four first-half points. Eastern Kentucky shot 42.9 percent (12-for-28) in the first half.
In the second half, it was more of the same for the Lady Racers, as their fast-pace defense forced turnovers and grabbed rebounds and turned into a high-octane offense, moving Murray State to the win.
Murray State was led by Scott, who finished with 27 points on 12-for-13 shooting from the floor. Scott also had a game-high nine rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.
Sophomore Amber Guffey put in 17 points, going 3-for-5 from three-point range and 4-for-4 from the line. Guffey also had a co-game-high five assists. Sophomore Paige Guffey chipped in 14 points, going 4-for-4 from three-point range. Sophomore Ashley Nichole Hayes handed out five assists and grabbed a co-game-high four steals to go with six rebounds.
Eastern Kentucky was led by Jones, who had 18 points and three steals. Andrea Jenkins added 16 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the floor, while Ashley Cazee had 13 points on 8-for-8 shooting from the line. Amber Kirkpatrick had a team-high five rebounds for the Lady Colonels.
Murray State moves on to Morehead State to complete the "Death Valley" trip. Tipoff is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.
