Murray State
UT Martin
Lady Racers Miss Share Of Title By Two Points, 62-60 At UTM
2/24/2007 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Murray State Lady Racers lost a tight battle at Tennessee-Martin 62-60 on Saturday, and with the loss, was unable to attain a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title. MSU finished in second place in the conference, only the second time in the program's history to achieve such a feat, last attained in the 1989-90 season.
However, winning the regular-season title was one of several goals this team set from the beginning. Ever since the end of last season, the main goal for the 2007 Lady Racers was to win the OVC tournament title, a quest that begins Tuesday night. The No. 2-seeded Lady Racers (19-8, 15-5 OVC) host No. 7 Seed Eastern Kentucky 12-17, 9-11 OVC) at 5:30 p.m. in the Regional Special Events Center.
At Tennessee-Martin, the Lady Racers were one of nine OVC teams to fall in Skyhawk Arena this season, with the earlier victims including OVC champion Southeast Missouri State and pre-season favorite Samford. Only Eastern Kentucky was able to get out of Martin with a win this season.
Murray State dug a hole for itself early on, making one of its first 14 shots from the field. The Lady Racers trailed 13-4 with 9:54 remaining in the first half and began its comeback, going on a 9-2 run, using threes from sophomore guard Amber Guffey and junior guard Shaleea Petty to pull to within 15-13 with 7:30 remaining in the period.
Tennessee-Martin (16-13, 10-10 OVC) pushed back out to a nine-point lead twice, but MSU closed out the half by hitting nine of its last 15 shots (60 percent) and containing the Skyhawks to a 34-28 lead at intermission.
In the second half, the Lady Racers showed the gutsy determination it has had all season long. UTM's Nicole Holman made the first basket of the half, but a jumper by Petty and a fallaway by sophomore forward Ashley Nichole Hayes closed the gap to 36-32.
Trailing 40-34 with 17:45 remaining in regulation, the Lady Racers took off, using a jumper by Petty, a three from junior guard Alaina Lee and a trey from senior post Erica Gordian to gain its first lead of the game, 42-40, with 13:13 left in the game.
A seesaw battle ensued throughout the half, with five ties over the next 10 minutes. A pair of free throws by sophomore guard Amber Guffey closed MSU's deficit to 55-54, but a layup by Skyhawk Crystal Fuller, two free throws by Nicole Rivers and a free throw by Victoria Carlile pushed the UTM lead to 60-54 with 29 seconds remaining.
Head coach Joi Felton again demonstrated excellent clock management, enabling Murray State to stay close enough to win. Freshman forward Jenny Petrie hit a three with 25 seconds left, then sophomore guard Paige Guffey was fouled while attempting a three-point shot. She sank all three free-throw attempts to tie the game at 60-60 with 21.5 seconds remaining.
UTM's Jennifer Angler was fouled with 4.4 seconds left and made both shots. Murray State got the ball inbounds, but the Skyhawks defense made getting a shot off difficult. Amber Guffey launched a three-quarter-court shot that fell short as the final buzzer sounded.
"It was very disappointing," Felton said. "To win a championship, you have to rebound, and we didn't get that done today. We were out-rebounded by 20 tonight (45-25). Martin did a great job. They were aggressive on the boards. At the end of the game, we gave up two offensive rebounds (before Angler was fouled), and that just can't happen. I'm disappointed for the team, but we've got to quickly shift our focus and think about winning an OVC title. We've got to get our focus back and concentrate on that.
"Our team is disappointed, but we talked about the fact that we don't want to have any regrets with the game. We have some; we have people who played tentatively on the offensive end, and defensively, in the first half, we didn't do a good job. I think what we learned from this is that we've got to play every possession really hard, like it's the last. I know that's cliche, but it's true, especially when you get in these situations. Come Tuesday night, if we don't win the game, we're done. So, I think we can learn some lessons. It's disappointing to have to learn them this way, especially when we get so close, but our team will bounce back. They're very resilient, and I know that they'll be ready to go in practice tomorrow.
"They attacked us inside," she said. "With Joi (Scott) or not, we've got to do a better job. Everybody knows that you can't just let somebody come in and post up deep in the paint. Joi Scott is one person; she couldn't have guarded two people (Fuller and Phyllisha Mitchell), and both of (UTM's) post players handled us pretty much. We've got to get better at that. Their post players had 29 rebounds out of 45. That's a big concern, and we've got to get better at that. We've got to get back to what we've been doing that got us to this point."
Murray State was led by Petty's 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 night from the line. She also had a team season-high-tying five steals and two assists.
Lee added 13 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the line and grabbed five rebounds to go with three assists and two steals. Amber Guffey put in 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting from three-point range to go with a game-high six assists. Hayes had a team-high six rebounds, while Gordian grabbed five.
Tennessee-Martin was paced by 19 points from Fuller and Mitchell, each shooting 8-for-17 from the field. Mitchell grabbed 19 rebounds -- 11 on the offensive end -- while Fuller had 10. Holman added 11 points off the bench to go with four assists. Rivers had a team-high five asists, while Angler and Kimberly Cox each had four.
