Murray State
Austin Peay
Lady Racers Nip Austin Peay 64-63
1/11/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
After opening with a dismal first half, the Murray State Lady Racers found their game in the second half, using a 9-0 run to vault ahead of host Austin Peay, then making the clutch plays down the stretch to secure the win, 64-63.
Murray State (10-4, 7-1 OVC) retook sole possession of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference, stepping a half-game ahead of Southeast Missouri State (11-4, 6-1 OVC), which visits APSU (5-11, 4-3 OVC) on Saturday.
The Lady Racers trailed 50-44 with 8:06 left in regulation before beginning the run, as senior forward Erica Gordian led off with a three-pointer, then senior forward Joi Scott put in a layup. Junior guard Alaina Lee hit a layup to give MSU its first lead of the game, 51-50, with 6:31 left, then Scott hit a layup to close out the 9-0 run with 5:46 remaining and a 53-50 Murray State lead.
APSU's Alicia Watson then hit a jumper to pull the Lady Govs back within one, 53-52, but junior guard Shaleea Petty made two free throws to get the lead back out to three. Watson hit another jumper to pull APSU back to within one, and Lady Gov Breana Link was fouled, giving Austin Peay an opportunity to tie or take the lead, but she missed both shots, and MSU kept the 55-54 lead.
Link avenged her misses at the line by sinking two with 3:54 left to put APSU ahead 56-55, but Scott hit a jumper to give Murray State a 57-56 lead. Watson put in a layup for Austin Peay, but Amber Guffey responded with a basket to give MSU a 59-58 lead with 2:20 remaining. APSU's Kellea Reeves sank a jumper to give the Lady Govs a 60-59 lead with 2:04 left, but Gordian sank another clutch three with 1:45 left to give MSU a 62-60 lead.
Reeves hit a layup to tie the game at 62-62 with 1:04 remaining, then was fouled with 22 seconds left. She made the first shot to give ASPU a 63-62 lead, and Murray State called a 30-second timeout. Reeves missed the second shot, and Petty came away with the ball. The Lady Racers called another 30-second timeout to set up a final play.
Scott posted up underneath the basket, caught the feed-in pass and went up for a layup, but was fouled by Reeves with 10.7 seconds remaining. She made both shots to give Murray State a 64-63 lead, then Austin Peay called its final timeout of the game. The Lady Govs ran a play from halfcourt, and Ashlee McGee put up a 15-foot jumper that fell away. Guffey grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 1.7 seconds left. She missed the shot, allowing the remaining time to run off the clock and giving Murray State the come-from-behind win.
At halftime, Murray State was out-rebounded 24-8 and shot 36 percent (9-for-25) from the field, trailing 36-31 at the break. MSU out-rebounded Austin Peay 16-14 in the second half and shot 45.5 percent (10-for-22) to APSU's 37 percent (10-for-27).
"At halftime, we talked about needing to do the things that we need to do to be successful," said MSU head coach Joi Felton. "I really challenged them. It really wasn't happening with the rebounding, and that's just effort and being aggressive. We did a much better job in the second half. We talked about executing our offense, something we did not do a good job of in the first half. We looked kind of tentative, but did a much better job of executing our offense in the second half.
"On defense, we did a much better job of staying between the ball and the basket, playing pressure defense. We also did a better job of blocking out so we only allowed one shot in each of their possessions.I'm proud of those things, especially since Austin Peay went so aggressively to the offensive boards. We had to control them on the glass, and we had to play better position defense."
Scott led all scorers with 29 points, going 9-for-16 from the field and 11-for-11 from the line, setting a career-high in free throws. Scott didn't start the game, trying to rest an injury, but wound up playing 31 minutes. Scott also had a game-high two blocked shots.
Guffey put in 14 points, going 4-for-9 from the field (2-for-5 from three-point range) and hitting her first four free-throw attempts. Guffey also handed out three assists.
Lee had a team-high eight rebounds to go with a game-high four steals and a co-game-high four assists. Sophomore Ashley Nichole Hayes had seven rebounds for MSU.
Murray State wsa 21-for-23 (91.3 percent) from the line (making their first 11 attempts in the second half, going 11-for-12), while APSU was 11-for-19.
Austin Peay was paced by 13 points off the bench from Reeves, who was 4-for-5 from the field and 5-for-7 from the line. She also grabbed five rebounds. Watson had 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting to go with 11 rebounds (10 in the first half), while Link had 10 points for the Lady Govs. McGee handed out a co-game-high four assists and had a team-high three steals.
Murray State steps out of OVC play, visting Alabama A&M on Monday at 6 p.m. The Lady Racers then return to league play on Jan. 20 with a home game against Tennessee-Martin.
