Murray State University Athletics
Racers Set to Battle For First Place in OVC at Eastern Illinois
2/20/2009 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Game
The Murray State women's basketball team will be participating in its final regular-season road game of the 2008-09 campaign Saturday, Feb. 21 when they take on Eastern Illinois at 3 p.m. in Lantz Arena. The battle will determine who will be in first-place in the Ohio Valley Conference heading into the final week of regular-season action.
About Eastern Illinois
The Panthers head into Saturday's clash with a 20-7 overall record and a 13-2 mark in the OVC. EIU is currently in first-place after the Racer's loss to SEMO and its win over UT Martin Thursday. However the Panthers have played one more game than Murray State due to the rescheduling of the UT Martin game.
EIU has won its last eight games overall and the last seven OVC contests. The Panthers last loss was to the Racers, Jan. 22 in Murray, Ky.
EIU has four players garnering around 10 points per game or higher. Rachel Galligan leads the team with 16 points and 7.1 rebounds per outings while shooting an impressive 55.1 percent from the field and adding 12 blocks. Maggie Kloak, Dominique Sims, and Ellen Canale are all averaging around 10 points per game. Kloak is netting 10.9 points while averaging 53.8 percent from the floor. Sims adds 10.1 points and Canale is tallying 9.9. Canale is a strong overall shooter with 40.2 percent of her shots connecting from the floor and 42.2 percent from beyond the arc.
The Panthers have a strong overall shooting percentage as a team at 43.5 percent. Only two members of the team have a percentage below 30 percent. EIU is ranked just below Murray State in the OVC stats for their 43.5 shooting percentage and their 35.3 three-point shooting percentage.
Like the Racers free throws have become an important part of the Panthers game. EIU is shooting 75.2 percent from the charity stripe and has made 234 while allowing their opponents to only attempt 224.
Ball control may be a factor like it was in the first meeting between the teams. EIU is averaging 6.6 steals per game while allowing its opponents to take 8.6 balls away from them.
Murray State will need to look out for the long arm of Galligan, as she helps the Panthers record 3.5 blocks per game with her 12 blocks in conference action this year.
Against the Panthers
The Racers saw double-digit scoring from three players in the 60-51 victory over EIU earlier this season at the RSEC. Senior Ashley Hayes led the team with 16 points, while junior Mallory Luckett set a career best with 14 and senior Angela Mullins tied a season high with 12. Hayes also tied a career high with five steals.
Both teams shot well below their season averages, with the Racers earning a slight advantage. Murray State hit 36.7 percent (22-of-60) of its shots, while the Panthers saw 21 of their 59 attempts (35.6%) fall. The key factor to the Racers' win was ball control. EIU committed 19 turnovers, including 15 in the second half. Murray State took advantage of the Panthers turnovers, scoring 22 of its points off the infractions.
EIU's Rachel Galligan led the team with 21 points, while Ellen Canale added nine. Both Galligan and Canale each tallied nine rebounds.
The Series
The Racers currently hold a 20-10 advantage in the all-time series, but the Panthers have a slight lead in the series in Charleston, Ill., 7-6. Murray State has been the victors in the last three games, with the last loss coming in Lantz Arena a season ago.
Ashley Adding to Resume
Ashley Hayes has had a great senior season for Murray State and is constantly adding achievements to her career resume. This year Hayes has recorded at least 30 points in seven games, the most by a single player in a season, and helped Murray State garner 10 30-point games, the most by a team in a season. Recently Hayes has added another first, scoring at least 30 points in five-straight games. The previous streak was two games by Diane Oakley, Jennifer Parker, and Joi Scott.
Working Way onto Watch List
Seniors Ashley Hayes and Amber Guffey can now add one more nomination to her list of honors for the 2008-09 campaign as they have both been named to the Naismith Trophy Watch List, named to the top women's basketball player in the nation. Guffey became the first Murray State women's basketball player to be named to the watch list in December, with Hayes earning her spot recently.
The Naismith Trophy presented by AT&T early season watch list was announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club and consists of 50 NCAA Division I women's basketball players from across the country. The watch list was compiled by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of Selectors, which based its criteria on player performances from the previous year and expectations for the 2008-09 college basketball season. The Naismith Trophy presented by AT&T will be awarded at the 2009 NCAA Women's Final Four in St. Louis, MO.
Best Scoring Duo in the Nation
Seniors Ashley Hayes and Amber Guffey have been leading the Racers all season in scoring and rebounding, but now they have earned the distinction as the best scoring duo in Division I women's basketball. Both players are in the top-15 in the nation in scoring and Murray State is the only school in the nation with two players in the top-50.
Hayes is currently in the No. 5 position with 23.8 points per game, while Guffey is ranked 18th with 20.3 points per game. Both four-year starters are on the best single-game scoring list this season. Guffey is tied for 15th with her 36 point performance at Colorado State. Hayes is also in the No. 15 spot with her 36 points against Austin Peay and in the No. 2 spot for her school-record 46 points against Tennessee State.
Honoring Hayes - Again
Senior Ashley Hayes has earned her fifth-straight OVC Player of the Week honor for her performance last week against Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State.
The Humboldt, Tenn., native tallied a double-double on the week for Murray State, scoring at least 30 points in each game. She recorded a career-high 17 rebounds against the Golden Eagles. Hayes has scored 30-plus points in her last five games, the longest streak by a single player in school history. For the week, she averaged 30.5 points and 13.5 rebounds while shooting 59.5 percent from the floor.
Ashley Atop Record Books
Almost two years after Joi Scott set the Racer's single game record for points scored in a game (43 at Tennessee State - 2/26/06) senior Ashley Hayes went into the same building and rewrote the record with her name and 46 points. The total gives her the record for the most points scored by an Murray State basketball player - both men's and women's.
The Humboldt, Tenn., native accomplished the feat with career highs of 14 field goals, seven three-pointers, and 11 free throws. Her seven treys ranks her second on the single game chart at Murray State. Her 11-for-11 free throw mark also puts her in a tie for the second best free-throw percentage in a game.
Academic Success
Murray State women's basketball seniors Amber Guffey and Paige Guffey have both been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 4 First Team and will now be eligible for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors. The first team honors mark the first time that a MSU women's basketball player has been eligible for Academic All-America honors.
Only eight student-athletes from Murray State have been named to an Academic All-America team, with the most recent being Sarah Dearworth (Volleyball) earning a third-team award in 1994. The volleyball team has seen three Academic All-Americans, while the football team has produced two, and men's basketball, baseball, and rifle have all earned one.
Home Sweet Home
The Racers now have a 11-0 mark in the RSEC this season. The home winning streak dates back to Jan. 31, 2008 and currently stands at 15 games, the longest since Murray State moved to the RSEC. The last loss that the Racers suffered at home was Jan. 26, 2008 against Southeast Missouri State.
The 15-game home winning streak puts Murray state 9th in the country for the longest current home winning streak. The longest home winning streak in team history is 19 games from Feb. 28, 1987 to Jan. 28, 1989.
20 Point Triple
Murray State's "Big Three" have had strong performances all season, but for the fourth time the trio tallied over 20 points in a game when they did so against Southeast Missouri State.
In a survey of NCAA Division I women's basketball SID's across the country only the University of Georgia has had three players score more than 20 points in a game twice in the same season.
Georgia is also the only school that has had twin sisters score more than 20 points in the same game. Kelly and Coco Miller tallied more than 20 points in the same game 10 times during their four-year career.
Free-Throw Frenzy
For the past four seasons, MSU has been knocking down a high percentage of shots from the charity stripe. Their effort to do so has paid off, as the Racers are currently ranked No. 1 among NCAA Division I teams in free-throw percentage. MSU has made 83.2 percent (420-of-505) of its free throws during the 2008-09 campaign in games through Feb.15.
MSU finished the 2007-08 campaign ranked No. 3 in the same category, while the team was ninth in 2006-07, and 14th in 2005-06.
Individually the Racers have three players ranked in the top-100 in free-throw percentage. Paige Guffey leads the team and the OVC with 88.7 percent. That ranks her ninth in the nation. Amber Guffey is also ranked on the national list as No. 18 with an 87.6 percent mark from the charity stripe. She finished the 2007-08 campaign ranked sixth in the country with a 85.0 free-throw percentage. Ashley Hayes is the third member of the MSU roster ranked in the national free-throw standings at No. 19.
NCAA Student-Athlete Blog
The NCAA started a new feature on its website for the 2008-09 season. The organization has chosen a student-athlete from each of the sponsored sports at each division to create a blog for the duration of the athlete's season. The NCAA asked the MSU women's basketball team to participate in the blog, and seniors Amber Guffey and Ashley Hayes have been uploading at least one blog entry per week since the beginning of the 2008-09 campaign.
The Guffey/Hayes Blog can be found as a link on www.GoRacers.com on the right-hand side of the women's basketball page.
Upcoming Schedule
Murray State will conclude the 2008-09 regular season in the friendly confines of the Regional Special Events Center. The Racers will first play the make-up game with UT Martin, Monday, Feb. 23, after being forced to reschedule the game due to the ice storm at the end of January. Murray State will then host Morehead State, Thursday, Feb. 26 and Eastern Kentucky, Saturday, Feb. 28. All games are scheduled for 5:15 p.m. tip-offs. The game against Eastern Kentucky will be the Racers' senior night to honor the five seniors who will play their last games in Murray.
Quick Plays
The 14-point deficit against Southeast Missouri State at the half tied the largest for the Racers this season and marked the largest deficit in conference play...Murray State went 10-for-10 from the charity stripe...Jessica Jackson tallied a career-high two blocks...senior Amber Guffey fouled out for the first time in her career against the Redhawks.
