Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Jacksonville State
Career Night for Ashley Hayes Boosts Racers Past Jacksonville State, 93-86
1/15/2009 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior Ashley Hayes had one of the best nights of her career, recording her fifth consecutive double-double with a career-high 32 points and 10 rebounds to help the
“Ashley Hayes defensive rebounding is crucial to our success as a team. She knows that she is a talented basketball player, but she also knows that she has a lot of responsibility on this team and she has accepted that role,” said head coach Rob Cross. “She has really stepped up in the last couple of games and become more of a vocal leader and I think she just continues to improve in each game.”
For the third time this season and the second-straight game the Racers (10-6, 5-1 OVC) “Big Three” all scored over 20 points. Senior Amber Guffey led the team with 33 points, while Hayes added 32, and senior Paige Guffey tallied 22.
Both teams missed opportunities to score on their opening possessions and the Racers were the first to get on the scoreboard. Hayes landed a shot from beyond the arc with 18:55. The Gamecocks (3-13, 0-6 OVC) scored on their next trip down the court, but were still trailing as they added only two points to the board.
Murray State then held JSU without a field goal for almost two minutes while building its lead to six (8-2). The Gamecocks took advantage of turnovers after getting back on track and quickly tied the game at eight with a 6-0 run over the next minute. The Racers then returned to tough defense and built back up a six-point lead while holding JSU scoreless again until 13:45 remained in the period.
The Gamecocks cut the advantage to three over the next 2:30, but the
The Racers quickly tied the game at 34 and did not allow JSU to gain an advantage for the rest of the half. Despite a tie at 36,
The Racers held on to a single digit lead for the first 11 minutes of the second stanza before Hayes hit two of her five free throws to give Murray State an 11-point advantage. The lead grew to as many as 14 points before the Gamecocks mounted a come-back in the final three minutes of the game.
From 2:38 remaining in the game through the 1:15 mark JSU went on a 7-0 run that dropped the advantage to just four points. The Racers continued to fight and pushed back out to a six point advantage with 47 ticks left on the clock. The Gamecocks would not be denied and Pitts sunk a three with 36 seconds left to cut the lead to three. JSU was then forced to foul to try and get the ball back, but Amber and Paige Guffey made all eight of their attempts from the charity stripe in the final 30 seconds to hold on to the lead.
Notes: Murray State's first six points came from three-pointers...the “Big Three” were all in double-digits in the points column before the end of the second half...the trio's 42 points in the opening stanza was the most scored by them this season...the previous high was 39 against Bethe.
Quotes
Head Coach Rob Cross
“It is tough to win on the road especially when you get the type of defense we got tonight. We played a lot of matador defense, we threw up the red cape, went ole and then let them go by us and get a lot of lay-ups. I am greatly disappointed in that.”
“We did a good job on the boards to out rebound them by six.”
“Offensively we are going to be able to score with the three tremendous scorers that we have.”
“When Paige came out and hit her first three, we as a coaching staff decided that we would keep going to her because she looked like she was on fire.”
