Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
DANCIN'!!!
3/8/2008 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Mission accomplished. And there's still room for more.
A 12-0 run in the first half and a 6-0 run midway through the second half pushed the Murray State women's basketball team to its first-ever Ohio Valley Conference title with a 69-58 win over Eastern Illinois. The tournament was played in Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. The win was the ninth straight for Murray State (24-7) and the sixth straight win by 10 or more points. Murray State locked up the first berth into the 2008 NCAA Championship Tournament.
From the end of last year's championship game, when the Racers lost 62-60 to OVC champion Southeast Missouri, the goal for the team has been to get back to Nashville and win the 2008 OVC Tournament title. "60-62" was a litany throughout the pre-season. It was worn on T-shirts, written on chalkboards. It was the driving force behind the Racers all season long to the point where it may have seemed like tunnel vision. Only now, the Racers saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
Amber Guffey was named tournament Most Valuable Player, averaging 19.7 points per game in the tournament to go with 4.0 assists per game and shooting 16-for-30 (.533) from the field in all three games. She was also 18-for-22 (.818) from the free-throw line in the tournament.
Ashley Hayes was also named to the all-tournament team, averaging 12 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in the tourney. Shaleea Petty also earned all-tournament honors, averaging 10.7 points, 6 assists and 4.3 steals per contest in the tournament.
Murray State scored the first four points of the championship game today, but Eastern Illinois (19-13) scored the next seven. The Panthers took a 9-6 lead when the Racers ran, scoring the next 12 points on a free throw and a layup by Angela Brown, tying the game at 9-9 with 10:53 left in the first half, a layup by Alaina Lee, a jumper by Hayes and a three-point play by Guffey, surging to an 18-9 lead with 8:45 left in the half. Murray State would not look back.
The Racers took a 31-21 lead and had their largest lead of the game when Guffey opened the half with the team's first three-pointer of the game to give MSU a 34-21 lead, but the Panthers got back in the game. EIU scored the next eight points of the game to pull to within 34-29 with 16:01 remaining, and got as close as 40-35 with 12:49 left, but the Racers made another run, with Lee hitting back-to-back free throws, Petty making a jumpshot and Lee making two more free throws to push back out to double-digits and keeping the game in hand.
Murray State was led by Guffey, who had 27 points on 7-for-11 shooting, going 3-for-6 outside the arc and 4-for-5 inside, and shooting 10-for-12 from the line. Hayes added 17 points and five rebounds, while Lee had 15 points, six rebounds and three assists. Petty had game-highs with five assists and six steals, with all of those steals coming in the first half.
"We knew it was going to be a game of runs," said MSU first-year head coach Jody Adams. "One of our keys was our mentality, how we were going to handle the runs. We also talked about what they were doing great and what we were not doing great, and how we were going to make changes. We made those changes. We answered with a run. We got theball in people's hands and attacked the rim. We kept them on their heels, and we got to the free-throw line, which was important for us. I like the way we handled ourselves with those runs, and it worked out for us against a very good team."
As the winner of the OVC Tournament, Murray State earned the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship Tournament, another first for the Racers. Murray State will discover who they play on Monday, March 17, when the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Special airs on ESPN and ESPN-U at 5 p.m. CT.
