Murray State
Southeast Missouri
Lady Racers Narrowly Miss Win At SEMO
1/28/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Murray State Lady Racers and host Southeast Missouri State fought tooth-and-nail through two overtime periods before the game was decided in the last minute, a 66-63 Redhawks win in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Murray State (12-6, 8-3 OVC) fought with the intensity seen earlier in the season, but seen lacking in the last two games, and Southeast Missouri (14-6, 9-3 OVC) also played a physical attacking game. Both teams crashed the boards hard throughout the game, playing in each others' faces under the basket.
The Redhawks held a 28-22 halftime advantage. with both teams being held to low shooting figures in the first half. Murray State was 7-for-25 (28 percent) from the field in the first half, while SEMO was 10-for-32 (31.3 percent). The Redhawks pushed out to as much as an eight-point lead in the first period.
In the second half, MSU picked up the pace, shooting 42.9 percent (12-for-28) to SEMO's 36 percent (9-for-25). Murray State opened the second half on a 4-0 run, but wasn't quite able to catch Southeast Missouri State until junior guard Shaleea Petty hit a layup to tie the game for the first of 11 times, making it 40-40 with 10:15 remaining in regulation.
The lead seesawed from there, with MSU getting out to a 53-50 lead with 2:19 remaining and SEMO going on a 4-0 run to push out to a 54-53 lead when Lachelle Lyles hit one of two free-throw attempts with 31 seconds left in regulation.
MSU senior forward Joi Scott missed a jumper, and it was rebounded by SEMO's Missy Whitney. Whitney turned the ball over with 13 seconds left, and senior post Erica Gordian put up a shot that was blocked by Whitney. Sophomore guard Amber Guffey grabbed the rebound and was fouled with five seconds remaining.
Guffey made the first shot to knot the game at 54-54. Southeast Missouri State took a timeout, then Guffey missed her second attempt. Whitney grabbed the rebound and shot the ball, but it missed, sending the game to overtime.
In the first overtime period, Scott and Gordian each blocked the first two shots made by the Redhawks. Sophomore guard/forward Ashley Nichole Hayes put up a shot, but it fell away to Whitney. SEMO's Sonya Daugherty missed a layup, and Gordian came away with the ball.
Junior guard Alaina Lee was fouled with 3:32 left in the first overtime, and she made her two free-throw shots to push MSU ahead 56-54. Daugherty hit a jumper to tie the game at 56-56 with 2:20 left, but Scott was fouled with 1:59 remaining. She missed her first attempt, but sank the second to give the Lady Racers a scant 57-56 lead.
Daugherty brought the ball back down the floor and put up two shots, the second being blocked by Petty from behind. Scott got the ball, but turned the ball over. Whitney got the ball and was fouled with 55 seconds left. She made her first free-throw attempt to tie the game at 57-57, but missed the second, and Scott came away with the ball. Lee missed a layup that was rebounded by Lyles, and the Redhawks held the ball for one shot. Ashley Lovelady put up a driving jumper with four seconds left, but it missed and Guffey grabbed the rebound. She ran down the floor and put up a three-pointer that missed, bringing about another overtime.
In the second overtime, Daugherty hit a putback just 18 seconds into the period to give SEMO a 59-57 lead. Guffey was fouled on the ensuing possession, and she made both shots to tie the game at 59-59 with 4:14 left in the second overtime.
Lee blocked a shot by Daugherty, but Lyles took the rebound. Lyles tried a putback, but it missed, and Hayes came away with the ball. Hayes popped in a jumper to give MSU a 61-59 lead with 3:17 remaining.
Daugherty hit a layup and was fouled, completing the three-point play to give SEMO a 62-61 lead with 2:39 left. Lee missed a shot and Lovelady came out with the ball. Szandra Pal put in a driving layup to extend the SEMO lead to 64-61 with 1:50 remaining.
Scott was fouled on the next possession, and she made both shots to cut SEMO's lead to 64-63 with 1:27 left. Loveleady missed a three-point attempt, and Hayes went up and grabbed the rebound. Murray State turned the ball over with 32 seconds remaining on a controversial call in which Lee was driving towards the basket and was hit hard by a SEMO player. The ball went out of bounds, and SEMO was given the ball. Lee was injured on the play, remaining on the floor for several minutes before walking off under her own power.
Lovelady made a layup on the next possession to push the Redhawks' lead to 66-63 with 17 seconds remaining. Murray State called a timeout with 13 ticks left, then ran a play. SEMO's defenders frustrated the Lady Racers' attempt to get an open shot until Guffey tried a long-range jumper that just missed as time expired.
"It was a physical battle," said MSU head coach Joi Felton. "We knew it would be. SEMO is a tough team -- very physical, very aggressive. We knew, coming on the road to their home court, that we had to match their aggressiveness. It could have bounced either way at the end. We fought hard, and I was really proud of our team's effort tonight.
"We've got to turn right back around and play in Birmingham on Monday at Samford, so we really don't have a lot of time to think about this one. Hopefully, they'll remember that feeling in the locker room and stay hungry and stay motivated because they played hard; both sides played hard. Again, we find ourselves hoping to get a win in a tough place to play at Samford.
"I talked about the effort that we gave and worrying about the things we can control," Felton said of her talk with the team after the game. "We're not going to blame anybody or make any excuses. Certainly, things could have gone differently, but we can learn a lot of lessons from this game. We gave up 25 offensive boards. If we get one or two of those back, who knows? The little things are what we need to focus on and what we need to improve on."
Scott finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, eight on the defensive end. She went 11-for-13 from the line. Guffey came away with 14 points on 3-for-7 shooting from three-point range and a co-team-high three assists, while Lee had 13 points, four rebounds, three asssts and two steals. She was 5-for-6 from the line. Scott and Guffey each had a co-game-high nine points in the second half to bolster MSU's comeback, and six of the Lady Racers' nine steals came in the second period.
Hayes also grabbed nine rebounds, all on the defensive end to go with six points. Petty finished with a co-game-high four steals.
Gordian again hit an important three-pointer to wrest the lead from SEMO, 51-49 with 4:41 left in regulation, the fourth straight game in which she had a three-pointer that gave MSU a lead or began a scoring run. Those were her only three points of the game, but she grabbed six rebounds (all defensive) for the Lady Racers. Freshman center Pam Bell played well, moving well in transition and popping in a layup that gave Murray State a brief 45-44 lead with 8:01 left in regulation.
Murray State hit 33.3 percent (20-for-60) from the field and 73.1 percent (19-for-26) from the line. The Lady Racers had nine steals to SEMO's seven.
Southeast Missouri State was paced by Daugherty's 23 points, going 8-for-24 from the field (3-for-10 during the overtime periods) and 6-for-9 from the line. Whitney finished with a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 15 rebounds (seven in the second half) to go with three blocked shots. Lovelady put in 11 points for SEMO, going 5-for-20 from the field.
Lyles had a game-high 21 rebounds (seven in the overtime periods) to go with nine points and game-high five assists. Tarina Nixon had four assists and four steals for the Redhawks.
Murray State concludes this three-game road swing on Monday with a 5 p.m. game at pre-season OVC favorite Samford (11-10, 6-6 OVC). The Lady Racers won the first contest against the Bulldogs, 77-63 on Dec. 17 in Murray.
