Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Late Run, Scrappy Play Give Racers A 62-59 Win
2/16/2008 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
A scrappy defense, a late run and an important jump ball call with five seconds remaining in regulation helped the Murray State women's basketball team to a 62-59 win over visiting Eastern Illinois in Ohio Valley Conference action.
Murray State (18-7, 12-5 OVC) trailed 53-49 with 5:43 remaining in regulation when it began the comeback. Shaleea Petty, playing in her first game since being injured at Morehead State on Feb. 9, hit two free throws with 5:15 left to bring the Racers within a basket, then Angela Brown hit a jumper with 4:21 remaining to tie the score at 53-53. Mallory Luckett made one of two free-throw attempts with 3:53 to go to give MSU its first lead of the second half before a layup by EIU's Maggie Kloak halted the Racer run and gave the Panthers a 57-56 lead with 2:52 remaining.
Petty and Ashley Hayes hit back-to-back jumpers to push MSU out to a 60-57 lead with a minute left, but EIU's Rachel Galligan hit two free throws with 36 seconds left to pull the Panthers to within one. Luckett had the ball stolen from her as she brought the ball upcourt on the inbounds play, but brought down a defensive rebound on the miss by Galligan. Lee was fouled with 23 seconds remaining, but missed the front end of the 1-and-1, and the Panthers took the rebound.
The ball got loose on Eastern Illinois's end of the court, and Luckett and EIU's Dominique Sims scrambled for the ball. Both came up with their hands on the ball, a jump ball was called, and the possession arrow favored the Racers. Hayes was immediately fouled and made both shots for the 62-59 final.
The Panthers (14-12, 13-5 OVC) pushed out to an early 13-6 lead with 14:55 left in the first half, but the Racers scored the next 10 points when Lee hit a layup and a three-pointer, Hayes made a jumpshot and Petty landed a three to give MSU a 16-13 lead with 12:04 remaining in the half. Murray State had a 24-19 lead when Petty hit a layup with 7:42 left in the period, but Eastern Illinois closed out the half on a 13-4 run to take a 32-28 halftime lead.
Eastern Illinois led for most of the second half, getting out to as much as a five-point lead four times, but the Racers were able to keep the deficit at a manageable level.
This match-up is traditionally a close defensive battle, as 20 of the 29 games in the series were decided by fewer than 10 points, and 13 by five or fewer points.
"We really did well on defense," said MSU coach Jody Adams. "I thought Shaleea got us some big deflections. Alaina didn't shoot the ball well, but played on both sides of the ball. Pam Bell came in and had a huge deflection. Mallory gives us a lift with her communication and her activeness. She will get on the floor and give you every inch of her 5-6 frame. They all had times in the game where they fought hard to get the board and the putback -- Angela had a big putback at the end off of an offensive board. We all played very well and fought very hard to win the ball game. I thought Shaleea played a whale of a game, after being out for the last five or six days and coming in here and playing 39 minutes.
"I have to give credit to our defense, and we got some good play off the bench. Mallory and Pam came in and gave us some good minutes, and so did Jessica Jackson. I was able to go nine deep, and that really helped us."
Murray State was led by Hayes, who had a game-high 23 points, going 8-for-18 from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 from the line. She also had a co-game-high nine rebounds to go with three assists and a co-game-high two blocked shots.
Petty had 15 points, four rebounds and four assists, while Brown had 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor to go with six rebounds and two blocked shots.
Amber Guffey -- the top scorer in the OVC prior to the game -- was held without a basket, but handed out a game-high five assists to go with four rebounds. Her two free throws tied, then broke the MSU single-season free-throws record of 146, set by Michelle Wenning in the 1990-91 season.
Murray State was held to 37.7-percent shooting (23-for-61) from the field, but grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, allowing the Racers 17 second-chance points to EIU's 11. MSU held the Panthers to 42.9-percent shooting (21-for-49) from the field and forced 16 EIU turnovers to Murray State's 12.
Eastern Illinois was led by Galligan, who had 16 points, going 6-for-6 from the line. She also had a co-game-high nine rebounds. Lindsey Kluempers had six rebounds, while Ashley Thomas had five. Thomas and Megan Edwards had a team-high three assists.
Murray State has a week off before hosting second-place Samford on Saturday at 4 p.m.
"I think this will be a good week for us," Adams said. "We can rest and regroup. Some of us need to take a look at what's going on and watch a little bit of film. We need to start preparing for the end of the OVC season, then taking it to the conference tournament. We need to tighten some things offensively and making sure we are all playing as a team."
TONIGHT IN THE OVC
at MURRAY STATE 62, Eastern Illinois 59
at Jacksonville State 54, Morehead State 44
at Samford 71, Eastern Kentucky 48
Southeast Missouri 53, at UT Martin 43
Tennessee Tech 69, at Austin Peay 52
Tennessee State was idle.
UPDATED OVC STANDINGS (OVC / All)
Southeast Missouri (14-2 / 19-6)
Samford (13-3 / 20-6)
Eastern Illinois (13-5 / 14-12)
MURRAY STATE (12-5 / 18-7)
Jacksonville State (8-9 / 11-15)
Tennessee State (8-9 / 11-15)
Eastern Kentucky (7-8 / 12-10)
Tennessee Tech (7-10 / 8-19)
Morehead State (5-11 / 7-17)
Austin Peay (2-14 / 5-20)
UT Martin (2-15 / 5-22)
