Murray State University Athletics
Women's Hoops Picked Third In Pre-Season Poll
10/10/2007 5:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Coming off of what could be called its best season ever, the Murray State women's basketball team was ranked third in the 2007-08 Ohio Valley Conference Pre-Season Poll. The poll and pre-season team were announced today at OVC Basketball Media Day, held at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. Balloting was done by league coaches and sports information contacts.
The Racers (21-10, 15-5 OVC last season) finished second in regular-season play last year and lost in the OVC Tournament championship game by two points, 62-60, to regular-season champion Southeast Missouri State. MSU advanced to the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the first time since 1989 and the second time ever, and boasted last season's OVC Player of the Year, Joi Scott.
SEMO was ranked first in this year's pre-season poll, garnering 199 points and 19 first-place votes. Samford was second with 161 points and two first-place votes, followed by Murray State with 155 points, Eastern Illinois with 119 points and a first-place vote, Tennessee Tech with 118 points, Tennessee-Martin at 114, Eastern Kentucky at 105, Morehead State at 100, Austin Peay at 69, Tennessee State at 48 and Jacksonville State at 22. Teams received 10 points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on. Coaches and sports information contacts could not vote for their own teams.
"We hope to build on the successes of last year," said MSU first-year head coach Jody Adams. "I am impressed with the work ethic our players bring, day in and day out. When I interviewed for the position at Murray State, not only did the administrators sell me on Murray State, but the players also sold me on Murray State."
Junior guard Amber Guffey and junior forward Ashley Hayes -- MSU's represebtatives on last season's All-OVC Tournament Team -- were named to the OVC Pre-Season Team. This season, the conference sponsors only one pre-season team, made up of returning players from last season's post-season teams and players elected to complete the 10-player pre-season team.
Guffey was second on the team in scoring with 13.0 points and shot .433 from the field, .403 from three-point range and .837 from the free-throw line. She ranked 11th in the OVC in scoring last season and second in the OVC with 4.26 assists per game. She ranked third in the OVC in free-throw percentage and fourth in three-point shooting. She was third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.61) and tied for sixth with 1.81 three-pointers per game. Last season, she set a school record for single-season minutes played, having put in 1,024 minutes of work throughout the 2006-07 season. As a member of last year's All-OVC Second Team, she was an automatic selection to this year's pre-season team.
Hayes ranked 13th in the OVC with 12.5 points per game and was ninth in rebounding at 6.8 boards per game. She ranked sixth in the OVC with a shooting percentage of .494 from the floor. A big part of the Racers' post-season success last year, Hayes averaged 19.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game through the Racers' four-game post-season.
Others named to the OVC Women's Basketball Pre-Season Team were Sonya Daugherty, Southeast Missouri State; Rachel Galligan, Eastern Illinois; Jessica Huffman, Eastern Illinois; Crystal Jones, Eastern Kentucky; Phyllisha Mitchell, Tennessee-Martin; Alex Munday, Samford; Obiageli Okafor, Tennessee State; and Missy Whitney, Southeast Missouri State.
The Racers return 10 players from last season's roster, including starters Guffey, Hayes, Alaina Lee and Shaleea Petty. Others returning include Pam Bell, Paige Guffey, Jessica Jackson, Mallory Luckett, Jasmyne Thornton and Gerraca Matthews, who missed all of last season with a medical redshirt.
Murray State will play an exhibition game against Christian Brothers on Nov. 3, then open its regular-season schedule at Missouri on Nov. 9. The first regular-season home game for the Racers will be on Nov. 13 against Bethel (Tenn.), and the first OVC contest will be on Dec. 6, when MSU hosts Eastern Kentucky. MSU will take part in one regular-season tournament, the UTC Panera Bread Challence, on Nov. 23-24. That tournament features one of the strongest fields -- if not the strongest field -- of any tournament this season, as all four teams are coming off of 20-win seasons last year: host Tennessee-Chattanooga, MSU's opening-round opponent, went 25-8 last season, tying for first in the Southern Conference; Louisville was 27-8; and Delaware was 26-6.
The Racers' non-conference schedule features four home games: Bethel, Alabama State (Nov. 17), Miami (Ohio) (Nov. 28) and Alabama A&M (Dec. 22). Aside from the UTC tournament and Missouri, the Racers will also travel to Lipscomb in non-conference play.
