Murray State University Athletics
Racers Headed to Oxford to Battle with Ole Miss in the Second Round of the WNIT
3/21/2009 5:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The WNIT
The Murray State women's basketball team will be making a stop in its third Oxford city in the nation this season when they play Mississippi in the Second Round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum, Sunday, March 22.
Live Video/Audio
Besides the normal live audio stream of Racer Basketball that will be aired live on Froggy (103.7 FM) and streamed on the internet for free on GoRacers.com, Ole Miss will also provide a free video stream of the game. A link will be provided on the women's basketball schedule page and on the WNIT Information ad on GoRacers.com.
About Mississippi
The Rebels earned a bye in the First Round of the 2009 WNIT after finishing the season with a 17-14 overall record and a 5-9 mark in the SEC. In their last outing the team fell to Auburn in the SEC Tournament, 65-71.
Ole Miss has two players averaging double-digit point totals this season. Bianca Thomas is at the top of the list with 15.8 points per game and 4.9 rebounds. Thomas takes the most shots from the floor and from beyond the arc for the Rebels, but is a strong shooter averaging 41 percent from the floor and 34.9 percent from three-point range.
Shawn Goff is the next player on the points list with 13.4 per game. Goff is also the team's leading rebounder and shot blocker. She adds 6.3 boards per game and has tallied 59 blocks this season. Her 2.1 blocks per game put her in the No. 34 spot on the national statistics.
The next player in the points column is Shantell Black with 8.3 points per outing. Black has strong ball control, with a 1.73 assist/turnover ratio that ranks her 36th in the nation.
As a team the Rebels connect on 39.2 percent of their shots while their opponents have virtually the same outcome (39.1 percent). Three-point shooting percentage is also close with Ole Miss netting a 30.0 percentage to a 29.2 mark by its opponents. In fact almost every statistical category is close for the Rebels, with the largest difference being a +4.8 mark in points scored per game (66.7/61.9).
The Series
Ole Miss currently holds a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series that consisted of a home-and-home series in 2000-01 and 2001-02. The first game was played in the Regional Special Events Center in Murray Dec. 3, 2000 with the Rebels taking home an 85-45 victory. The next year the Racers traveled to Oxford, Miss., and fell 58-78 after have a lead early in the second half, Nov. 19, 2001.
The Tournament
The WNIT consists of 48 teams, with 16 teams earning a first-round bye. The second round of the WNIT is March 21-24, the third round is March 25-27, the quarterfinals are March 28-30, the semifinals occur April 1--2, and the championship game is April 4. All games are played on campus sites. The winner of Sunday's contest will move on to play the winner of the South Florida/Florida Gulf Coast game that will be played at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 21.
In the WNIT
This is the third appearance for the Racers in the WNIT, with the team owning a 2-3 overall record in the tournament. Murray State's last appearance was in 2007 when they lost to Arkansas State (52-59) in the first round. The first bid to the tournament came during the 1988-89 campaign. The Racers first defeated Richmond (84-73) before losing to San Diego State and Toledo.
Last Second Hayes
Senior Ashley Hayes came through for the Racers in the final minute of a game for the second time this season. After grabbing a rebound and sinking a shot with less than a second left to give Murray State the win at UT Martin (Jan. 5), the Humboldt, Tenn., native scored four points in the final 1:15 of the game at Arkansas-Little Rock to tie the game and give the Racers a 67-65 win in the First Round of the 2009 WNIT.
All-Tournament Amber
Senior Amber Guffey became the first Murray State player to be named to the OVC All-Tournament Team for three seasons when she earned a spot on the 2008-09 OVC All-Tournament squad for her 35 point performance against Austin Peay. The Albany, Ky., native was named to the team in 2007 and was named the tournament MVP in 2008. Heading into this year's tournament Guffey and Ashley Hayes were the only two players to have been named to two all-tournament teams.
OVC Champions!
With the 80-60 victory over Eastern Kentucky Saturday, Feb. 28, Murray State claimed the 2008-09 OVC regular-season championship for themselves. The Racers finished 16-2 in the OVC standings to take their first regular-season title in school history. It was the first time since 2004-05 that a team has claimed the title with less than three loses on the year.
20-Win Season
The Racers 67-65 victory over the Trojans pushed the 2008-09 record to 23-8 and the team is now one win away from tying the record for the most wins in a single season set last year at 24. Murray State tallied its 20th victory on the season against Morehead State. The mark gave the Racers their fifth 20-win season in school history, and the third in a row (2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09). The previous two 20-win seasons were 1987-88 and 1988-89 under head coach Bud Childers.
More National Exposure
Seniors Amber Guffey and Paige Guffey will be on national TV one more time this season. The duo will be featured on the April NCAA On Campus program that will be aired April 15 on ESPN Classic and later on ESPNU. The broadcast will also be achieved on NCAA.com.
Amber Academic All-America of the Year
Senior Amber Guffey was honored Monday with the biggest academic award for a Division I women's basketball player when she was named the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America of the Year. The award is the first for a Murray State student-athlete. Amber joins the ranks of players like Candace Parker, who earned the award for the 2007-08 campaign.
Amber and her twin sister Paige Guffey were also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team after earning Academic All-District 4 honors. Both the all-district and All-America honors are the first for the women's basketball team.
Including the Guffey sisters, only 10 student-athletes from Murray State have been named to an Academic All-America team, and only four have earned first team accolades. 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 finished the year with a 14-0 mark in the RSEC. The home winning streak dates back to Jan. 31, 2008 and currently stands at 19 games, the longest since Murray State moved to the RSEC. The longest home winning streak ties the longest in team history - 19 games from Feb. 28, 1987 to Jan. 28, 1989 (Racer Arena). The last loss that the Racers suffered at home was Jan. 26, 2008 against Southeast Missouri State.
The 19-game home winning streak puts Murray state 5th in the country for the longest current home winning streak.
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-10 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. 6 position with 23.0 points per game, while Guffey is ranked 9th with 21.0 points per game. Both four-year starters are on the best single-game scoring list this season. Guffey is tied for 17th with her 36 point performance at Colorado State. Hayes is also in the No. 17 spot with her 36 points against Austin Peay and in the No. 2 spot for her school-record 46 points against Tennessee State.
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 a 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.
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 82.4 percent of its free throws during the 2008-09 campaign in games through March 8.
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 8th in the nation. Amber Guffey is also ranked on the national list as No. 10 with an 88.1 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. 23, with an 85.82percentage.
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.
Quick Plays
Murray State is only the second non-Sun Belt Conference team to defeat UALR in The Jack Stephens Center since it opened in 2005...the only other team to accomplish the feat was Louisiana-Monroe during the 2005-06 campaign.
