Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Christian Brothers (exhib.)
Women's Basketball Scuttles Christian Brothers 84-49 In Exhibition
11/3/2007 5:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Murray State women's basketball team opened the Jody Adams era on the right foot, using a 26-11 surge midway through the second half to pull away, winning its sole exhibition game 84-49 over Christian Brothers tonight.
In the early going, Christian Brothers stayed close, but after CBU's Kat Butler tied the game for the final time at 16-16 with 11:41 left in the first half, the Racers took off, scoring the next seven points on a layup and a three-pointer by junior guard/forward Ashley Hayes and two free throw by junior guard Paige Guffey to take a 23-16 lead. MSU pushed out to as much as a 33-21 lead when junior guard Amber Guffey hit a three with 3:26 remaining in the half, and Murray State went into the locker room with a 35-24 advantage.
Hayes led the scoring with a game-high 11 points in the first half, while senior center Angela Brown had a game-high five rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Tameka Wooten led the Lady Bucs with eight points in the first half, while Butler had a team-high four rebounds in the opening half.
Christian Brothers opened the second half with a brief 4-2 run to trim the Murray State lead to 37-28. Slowly but surely, the Racers built on that lead, and when CBU's Crystal Shelton hit a basket to cut the MSU lead to 57-41, the Racers ran off seven unanswered points, with senior guard Alaina Lee hitting a three-pointer and Paige Guffey hitting two free throws and a layup. A basket by Butler only interrupted the Racer run, as freshman forward Tanjala Wynn hit a layup and senior guard Shaleea Petty sank a basket and a jumpshot to push the lead to 70-44 with 3:46 left in the game. A jumper by Wooten with 2:33 left would be the final score for the Lady Bucs, as Murray State scored the last 12 points of the game on a layup by sophomore guard Mallory Luckett, two free throws by Brown, a trey by Lee, a free throw and a layup by Luckett and a basket by Paige Guffey.
In that second half, Murray State out-rebounded Christian Brothers 31-7, allowing only one offensive rebound in 19 missed shots by the Lady Bucs.
"I think that exhibition games are important for the players," Adams said. "They get out of the practice routine and put it on the floor. We get a chance to see where our strengths are, who plays well with who. A lot of things happen in exhibition games. It's good for the coaches and good for the players.
"One thing I learned from this exhibition game is that when you challenge the players to step up, they can do that. We had a tremendous effort on the offensive boards in the second half. That certainly helped us pull away."
Murray State was led by Hayes, who had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 9-for-18 from the floor. She also had a game-high four steals and a game-high seven defensive rebounds. Lee added 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds, with four of those on the offensive end. Amber Guffey had 14 points, going 2-for-2 from three-point range and 4-for-4 from the line. Luckett had six rebounds (five defensive) and a team-high three assists, while sophomore guard Jasmyne Thornton had five offensive rebounds.
Murray State shot 45.1 percent from the field, hitting 32 of 71 shots. The Racers hit 38.5 percent of their three-point shots (5 of 13) and went 15-for-18 from the line (83.3 percent). MSU had 50 rebounds, with 26 of those coming from the offensive end, taking 63.4 of their missed shots. Small wonder that the Racers had 22 second-chance points and 36 points in the paint to CBU's 12.
Christian Brothers was led by Wooten's 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field, while Shelton had 13. Shelton, Butler and Wooten each had a team-high four rebounds for the Lady Bucs, while Jen Sneed had a game-high five assists and Wooten had a team-high three steals.
CBU shot 34.6 percent from the field, hitting 18 of 52 attempts, and sank 31.3 percent fo its three-point attempts (5 of 16). The Lady Bucs made 57.1 percent of their free-throw shots, hitting eight of 14 from the line. CBU finished with 25 rebounds.
Murray State opens its regular-season schedule at Missouri on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
