Murray State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts Samford on Saturday at 4 p.m.
2/22/2008 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
It doesn't seem like it was more than three months ago that this year's Murray State women's basketball team and first-year coach Jody Adams took the floor to begin the season, but now, the Racers need to take care of business in the final week of the regular-season schedule.
The first step, as they say, is the hardest, and Murray State faces a daunting opponent in Samford (21-6, 14-3 OVC), ranked second in the Ohio Valley Conference and on an eight-game win streak. Tipoff is Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Bulldogs sport a 9-4 record on the road, 6-1 in OVC road games. However, Samford has yet to win in the Regional Special Events Center, and the Racers are 27-13 (.675) all-time in the RSEC in the month of February. Murray State is 10-2 at home this season, 6-2 in OVC home games.
In these teams' last meeting on Dec. 20 in Birmingham, a jumper by Alex Munday with 1.3 seconds left gave the Bulldogs the 62-60 win and snapped MSU's six-game win streak. The Racers were able to take advantage of Samford's miscues, scoring 20 points off of turnovers to the Bulldogs' nine off of MSU's turnovers.
Ashley Hayes had game-highs with 27 points and nine rebounds, while Amber Guffey had 12 points and game-highs with five assists and three steals. Samford was led by Monica Maxwell's 13 points -- all scored in the second half. Savannah Hill added 12 points, while Munday and Emily London each had 11 points. Chika Okoli had a team-high seven rebounds for the Bulldogs.
The result was Murray State's first OVC loss of the season and Samford's first OVC win of the year.
Murray State has a chance to move into a tie for third place in the conference standings with idle Eastern Illinois (13-5 OVC) -- whom the Racers beat 62-59 last Saturday -- and pull to within a game of Samford. After Saturday, Samford visits top-ranked Southeast Missouri (15-2 OVC) on Thursday and Eastern Illinois on March 1, which can cause quite a shake-up among the upper echelon of the league. Murray State closes out the regular season at Tennessee Tech (7-11 OVC) on Thursday and at home against UT Martin (2-16 OVC) on March 1.
RACER GAME CENTRAL
Murray State Racers (18-7, 12-5 OVC)
vs. Samford Bulldogs (21-6, 14-5 OVC)
Saturday, Feb. 23, 4:00 p.m. || Regional Special Events Center (8,600), Murray, Ky.
GAME-DAY INFORMATION
Radio: WNBS (1340 AM / Josh Perigo)
Listen Live/GameWatcher: www.GoRacers.com
Video Streaming: www.OVCsports.tv
Game Notes: Click Here
UPDATED OVC STANDINGS (OVC / All)
Southeast Missouri (15-2 / 20-6)
Samford (14-3 / 21-6)
Eastern Illinois (13-5 / 15-12)
MURRAY STATE (12-5 / 18-7)
Eastern Kentucky (8-8 / 13-10)
Jacksonville State (8-9 / 11-15)
Tennessee State (8-9 / 11-15)
Tennessee Tech (7-11 / 8-20)
Morehead State (5-11 / 7-17)
Austin Peay (2-15 / 5-21)
UT Martin (2-156/ 5-23)
SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE OVC (Times are Central Time.)
Samford at MURRAY STATE, 4:00 p.m.
Tennessee Tech at Morehead State, 1:00 p.m.
Jacksonville State at Tennessee State, 3:00 p.m.
Austin Peay at UT Martin, 4:00 p.m.
Eastern Kentucky at Southeast Missouri, 7:30 p.m.
