Murray State University Athletics
Racers Headed to Nashville for Clash with Austin Peay in OVC Tournament
3/5/2009 6:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Semifinals
The No. 1 Murray State women's team will be making the trip to Nashville, Tenn., to participate in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Tournament for the third-straight season after defeating No. 8 Jacksonville State Tuesday night, 79-69, in the Regional Special Events Center. The Racers (22-7, 16-2 OVC) will face No. 5 Austin Peay at noon at the Sommet Center in downtown Nashville.
About Austin Peay
The Lady Govs come into Friday's game on a two-game winning streak, including a 78-74 road victory over Morehead State to earn their trip to Nashville, Tenn. The win over Southeast Missouri State in the final game of the regular season broke a five-game losing streak that was started at the RSEC Feb. 7.
APSU has three players averaging over 10 points per game this season. April Thomas leads the team with 13 points per game and is the top rebounder with 9.1 boards per contest. Ashley Herring is next on the scoring list with 11.6 points per game. Both Thomas and Herring are strong shooters for the Lady Govs. Thomas is shooting 47.8 percent from the field while Herring is a strong three-point shooter. She has a 35.4 shooting percentage and has taken 127 shots from three-point range this season.
Nicole James is the third player for APSU in double-digits, with 11 points per game. She is also a strong shooter, with a team-high 49.2 mark.
The one area on the season box score that the Lady Govs hold an advantage over their opponents is in the rebounding column. APSU is grabbing 3.3 more rebounds per game than its opponents.
Against the Lady Govs
The two games series with APSU was a good one for the Racers. Ashley Hayes averaged 32.5 points per game and added 11 rebounds, while shooting 60 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from three-point range, and 100 (11-for-11) percent from the line. Amber Guffey also contributed more than her season average, with 26 points per game. She shot 61.5 percent from the floor and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc. Paige Guffey added 20 points per contest, including a 14-for-14 mark from the charity stripe.
Four of the Lady Govs also performed above their season averages when playing Murray State. April Thomas and Ashley Herring added 18 points per game, while shooting over 55 percent from the field and three-point range, respectively. Nicole Jamen added 11.5 points and Brooke Faulkner added 11.
The Racers out-scored APSU by an average of 14 points and did so with a clear advantage beyond the arc. Murray State hit eight treys per game, while the Lady Govs netted 4.5.
However APSU out-rebounded the Racers by 7.5 boards per game.
The Series
This will be the 77th meeting in the all-time series between the Racers and the Lady Govs. Murray State currently owns a 42-34 advantage in that series, but Austin Peay has been victorious in the previous two battles in the conference tournament. The last tournament meeting was during the 2002-03 campaign and the first was in 2000-01. In the 2003 meeting the Lady Govs earned a 75-54 victory in the first round. This will be the first meeting in the semifinals for the teams.
The Tournament
The top three seeds in the tournament (No. 1 Murray State, No. 2 Eastern Illinois, No. 3 Tennessee State) all earned victories in their first round games, but No. 5 Austin Peay upset No. 4 Morehead State to earn the final spot in the semifinals. The Panthers will play the Tigers at 2 p.m. in the second semifinal of the women's bracket.
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.
In the OVC Tournament
It was the third-straight season that Murray State hosted a first-round game in the OVC Tournament and the team's 16th appearance overall. The Racers are 11-15 all-time in the OVC post-season, including a 4-4 mark in the semifinals. Murray State has won the last two semifinal games that it has participated in, with the last loss coming in 2000.
Starters Sticking Together
For the first time this season and the first time since Feb. 28, 2008 at Tennessee Tech. The Racers saw double-digits from five players - Amber Guffey (26), Paige Guffey (17), Ashley Hayes (13), Angela Mullins (10), and Mallory Luckett (10) - against JSU.
Hayes also added a career-best 17 rebounds, while Luckett garnered a career-best five steals.
20-Win Season
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.
The Lowe Down
Freshman Kayla Lowe had the best weekend of her young career in the final weekend of the regular season. The rookie tallied career bests with 10 points and seven rebounds against Morehead State. The Pikeville, Ky., native followed that performance with nine points, two offensive rebounds, and a block against Eastern Kentucky.
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-14 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 23.1 points per game, while Guffey is ranked 14th with 20.4 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.
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 83.2 percent of its free throws during the 2008-09 campaign in games through March 1.
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 88.5 percent. That ranks her 11th in the nation. Amber Guffey is also ranked on the national list as No. 12 with an 88.4 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, with an 85.8 percentage.
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.
The No. 1 Murray State women's team will be making the trip to Nashville, Tenn., to participate in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Tournament for the third-straight season after defeating No. 8 Jacksonville State Tuesday night, 79-69, in the Regional Special Events Center. The Racers (22-7, 16-2 OVC) will face No. 5 Austin Peay at noon at the Sommet Center in downtown Nashville.
About Austin Peay
The Lady Govs come into Friday's game on a two-game winning streak, including a 78-74 road victory over Morehead State to earn their trip to Nashville, Tenn. The win over Southeast Missouri State in the final game of the regular season broke a five-game losing streak that was started at the RSEC Feb. 7.
APSU has three players averaging over 10 points per game this season. April Thomas leads the team with 13 points per game and is the top rebounder with 9.1 boards per contest. Ashley Herring is next on the scoring list with 11.6 points per game. Both Thomas and Herring are strong shooters for the Lady Govs. Thomas is shooting 47.8 percent from the field while Herring is a strong three-point shooter. She has a 35.4 shooting percentage and has taken 127 shots from three-point range this season.
Nicole James is the third player for APSU in double-digits, with 11 points per game. She is also a strong shooter, with a team-high 49.2 mark.
The one area on the season box score that the Lady Govs hold an advantage over their opponents is in the rebounding column. APSU is grabbing 3.3 more rebounds per game than its opponents.
Against the Lady Govs
The two games series with APSU was a good one for the Racers. Ashley Hayes averaged 32.5 points per game and added 11 rebounds, while shooting 60 percent from the floor, 46.2 percent from three-point range, and 100 (11-for-11) percent from the line. Amber Guffey also contributed more than her season average, with 26 points per game. She shot 61.5 percent from the floor and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc. Paige Guffey added 20 points per contest, including a 14-for-14 mark from the charity stripe.
Four of the Lady Govs also performed above their season averages when playing Murray State. April Thomas and Ashley Herring added 18 points per game, while shooting over 55 percent from the field and three-point range, respectively. Nicole Jamen added 11.5 points and Brooke Faulkner added 11.
The Racers out-scored APSU by an average of 14 points and did so with a clear advantage beyond the arc. Murray State hit eight treys per game, while the Lady Govs netted 4.5.
However APSU out-rebounded the Racers by 7.5 boards per game.
The Series
This will be the 77th meeting in the all-time series between the Racers and the Lady Govs. Murray State currently owns a 42-34 advantage in that series, but Austin Peay has been victorious in the previous two battles in the conference tournament. The last tournament meeting was during the 2002-03 campaign and the first was in 2000-01. In the 2003 meeting the Lady Govs earned a 75-54 victory in the first round. This will be the first meeting in the semifinals for the teams.
The Tournament
The top three seeds in the tournament (No. 1 Murray State, No. 2 Eastern Illinois, No. 3 Tennessee State) all earned victories in their first round games, but No. 5 Austin Peay upset No. 4 Morehead State to earn the final spot in the semifinals. The Panthers will play the Tigers at 2 p.m. in the second semifinal of the women's bracket.
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.
In the OVC Tournament
It was the third-straight season that Murray State hosted a first-round game in the OVC Tournament and the team's 16th appearance overall. The Racers are 11-15 all-time in the OVC post-season, including a 4-4 mark in the semifinals. Murray State has won the last two semifinal games that it has participated in, with the last loss coming in 2000.
Starters Sticking Together
For the first time this season and the first time since Feb. 28, 2008 at Tennessee Tech. The Racers saw double-digits from five players - Amber Guffey (26), Paige Guffey (17), Ashley Hayes (13), Angela Mullins (10), and Mallory Luckett (10) - against JSU.
Hayes also added a career-best 17 rebounds, while Luckett garnered a career-best five steals.
20-Win Season
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.
The Lowe Down
Freshman Kayla Lowe had the best weekend of her young career in the final weekend of the regular season. The rookie tallied career bests with 10 points and seven rebounds against Morehead State. The Pikeville, Ky., native followed that performance with nine points, two offensive rebounds, and a block against Eastern Kentucky.
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-14 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 23.1 points per game, while Guffey is ranked 14th with 20.4 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.
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 83.2 percent of its free throws during the 2008-09 campaign in games through March 1.
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 88.5 percent. That ranks her 11th in the nation. Amber Guffey is also ranked on the national list as No. 12 with an 88.4 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, with an 85.8 percentage.
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.
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