Murray State
Samford
Lady Racers Bite Bulldogs 73-64
1/30/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior forward Joi Scott had a double-double with 32 points and 12 rebounds and sophomore guard Amber Guffey hit her first 13 free-throw attempts as Murray State used a 14-0 first half run to push past host Samford, holding that lead to the 73-64 win in Ohio Valley Conference play. The win marked the first time in the six-game series that the visiting team won the game.
Scott claimed her seventh double-double of the season -- her 14th career feat -- by shooting 11-for-17 from the field despite being closely guarded by multiple opponents. Scott also went 9-for-13 from the line and worked to claim eight offensive boards down low.
Samford (11-11, 6-7 OVC) opened the game with the first four points, but Murray State (13-6, 9-3 OVC) answered with the next eight. The Bulldogs then scored six unanswered points to take a 10-8 lead with 12:39 remaining in the first half.
Samford took a 14-12 lead with 9:54 left in the period when MSU went on a 14-0 run, opening with a layup by Scott to tie the game with 9:42 remaining in the half. Scott hit another layup and Guffey sank two free throws, followed by a three from junior guard Shaleea Petty. Scott then hit a three from the top of the key and Guffey made two more free throws to close out the run, giving the Lady Racers a 26-14 lead with 6:50 left in the half.
MSU got out to as much as a 17-point lead, 42-25, before settling in to a 42-27 halftime lead. The Lady Racers shot 48.1 percent (14-for-29) from the field in the first half, holding the Bulldogs to 33.3 percent (9-for-27).
Scott had 20 points at halftime on 8-for-11 shooting from the field to go with eight first-half rebounds. Guffey had seven of her game-high eight assists in the first half, going 6-for-6 from the line in the first 20 minutes.
Scott made one of two free-throw attempts to open the second half, but Samford scored the next seven points to pull to within 43-34 with 17:09 left in regulation. MSU pushed out to a 53-40 lead with 11:09 remaining, but the Bulldogs hit three-pointers from Chelsee Insell and two free throws from Taryn Towns to get within five points, 55-50, with 8:09 left.
Murray State led 66-54 with 4:01 remaining when Samford went on a late surge, scoring the next six points to pull to within 66-60 with 1:32 remaining, but MSU was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line over the last minute to secure the win.
"I am very proud of the way we fought throughout this game," said MSU head coach Joi Felton. "We knew coming in that this would be a very physical game at both ends. Joi Scott was our workhorse, but we had good play out of our guards, with 16 assists to only 10 turnovers. This has been a tough three-game road swing, and I am glad that we were able to work together and end it with a win."
Guffey was 13-for-14 from the line, sinking her first 13 attempts. She finished with five rebounds -- all defensive -- and eight assists, with only two turnovers. She and Scott combined for a 22-for-27 night from the line, with sophomore guard Paige Guffey (2-for-2) and sophomore forward Ashley Nichole Hayes (1-for-1) claiming the rest of the team's free throws.
Hayes had 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field. Petty had five assists to only one turnover, and senior post Erica Gordian had a game-high two blocked shots for MSU.
Samford's Veronica Pike also finished with a double-double, with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Pike was 11-for-19 from the field. Insell had 18 points, shooting 5-for-9 from the field (4-for-7 from three-point range) and 4-for-5 from the line to go with five rebounds. Towns had eight rebounds to go with six points and a team-high three assists. The Lady Racers held Samford's top scorer, Alex Munday, to seven points on 1-for-10 shooting from the field.
The win pulled the Lady Racers within a half-game of first place in the OVC standings, just a half-game behind Southeast Missouri State (15-6, 9-3 OVC), which beat Austin Peay tonight, and Morehead State (11-10, 10-3 OVC), which lost at Tennessee Tech tonight.
Murray State returns home to face Austin Peay (7-14, 6-6 OVC) on Thursday at 5:15 p.m. The Lady Racers then return to Alabama, visiting Jacksonville State (6-16, 3-10 OVC) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
