Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Houston Baptist
Tale of Two Halves Ends With Racer Victory Over Houston Baptist
12/19/2008 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior Amber Guffey showed why she
is an All-America candidate as she finished the game one assist shy of the
schools second triple-double. The
“Amber had an outstanding performance tonight, especially in the second half,” said head coach Rob Cross. “I said I was proud of her seven rebounds against Alabama A&M so for her to get 11 tonight is gigantic for a point guard.”
Fellow All-America candidate Ashley Hayes earned her third double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Senior Angela Mullins was the final member of the team with more than 10 rebounds, as she tallied a career-best 11.
“ Angela Mullins might have only had four points for us, but she had 11 huge rebounds,” Cross added. “That high number of rebounds will just help her to continue to gain confidence as we head into conference play.”
The Huskies (3-8) earned the opening tip and scored on their first possession and then turned on the defense and held the Racers (6-5, 1-1 Ohio Valley Conference) scoreless for the first 2:30 on the game. HBU tallied seven points in the span before MSU scored the next four to cut the advantage to three. The Huskies then expanded their lead to 11 points with 12:03 remaining with a 5-0 run.
The Racers then started a 6-0 run over a minute span (8:30-7:30) to cut the advantage to just two points (19-21). MSU continued to fight and got within one point (25-26) with a 12-4 run that ended with just over five minutes left in the half. The Racers earned their first lead of the game with 4:07 left on the clock with a jumper from Amber Guffey. The Huskies then closed out the half with a 10-4 run to take a 38-33 lead into the locker room.
Besides trailing on the scoreboard, MSU was being out-rebounded 25-22 at the half and was getting out-scored 24-10 in the paint.
HBU hit the first basket of the second half, but the Racers came out of the locker room with a renewed spirit and started a 12-0 run to earn its second lead of the game (45-40) with 15:45 left in the second stanza. MSU did not relinquish the lead from then on and continued to build their advantage throughout the half.
The Racers pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time with 12:41 remaining in the half with a 6-0 run with back-to-back three-pointers from Amber and Paige Guffey. With just over seven minutes left to play in the game, MSU embarked on a 8-0 run over a two minute span to earn a 71-52 advantage. The lead remained between 15-19 points the rest of the game until freshman Kayla Lowe hit a shot from beyond the arc with 20 second left to give the Racers their biggest advantage of the game.
MSU ended the game with a season-best 58 rebounds, and out-rebounded the Huskies by 14. Despite the deficit at the half, the Racers had a better shooting percentage than HBU in both halves of the game. The Huskies shot 39.5 percent in the opening stanza and then just 21.6 percent in the second. MSU shot 40.6 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and then improved that mark to 46.2 percent in the second.
The Racers have one game left in the 2008 portion of the
season. MSU travels to
“The thing that feels good about tonight is that even though
we didn't come out to play Racer basketball in the first half, we made the
needed adjustments in the second half,” said Cross. “We dominated them on the boards in the
second half and that is huge for us as we head into the last game of the week
against
Notes: It was the second straight game that Amber Guffey tallied nine assists...all but one player who saw action in the game for MSU tallied at least one point...freshman Rachael Isom tallied a career-best three assists, and tied a career-high with two three-point baskets...senior Paige Guffey tallied four trey's for the second-straight game.
Quotes
Head Coach Rob Cross
“The players that come off the bench and need to make their shots are accomplishing that. They may not be getting to take a lot of shots, but they are connecting on a high percentage of them.”
