Racers Fall to Tennessee State on the Road, 82-72

Thursday, January 7

Nashville, Tenn.

4 p.m.

Murray State

Tennessee State

1/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

The Murray State women's basketball team lost a hard fought game to Tennessee State, 82-72, at the Gentry Center in Nashville, Tenn., in the first Ohio Valley Conference road game of the 2010 portion of the season.

The Racers (6-9, 1-3 OVC) were led by senior Mallory Luckett who tallied her third career double-double, with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Kayla Vance also had a strong showing for MSU, recording a team-high 19 points. Sophomore Kristen Kluempers was also in double-digits, with 11 points.

The Racers opened the first half of action with a 5-0 run before the Lady Tigers (5-9, 2-3 OVC) were allowed to score their first basket of the game with just over 18 minutes left on the clock. TSU countered with a 12-2 run over the next six minutes to take the lead for the remainder of the game. MSU kept the deficit around five-to-eight points until there was six minutes left to play in the opening stanza.

The Lady Tigers then hit two-straight threes and continued with a 9-0 run to push their lead out to 15 points. In the final 2:30 the Racers pushed back and were able to cut the lead to 10 heading into the locker room (39-29) on six free throws from Luckett and Vance.

The second half opened slowly on the scoreboard, with only four points being scored in the first 3:30. MSU earned the first points of the stanza at the free-throw line (19:02) before the Lady Tigers got the first bucket with the clock reading 18:21. The Racers earned their first basket with 16:19 left to play. The teams then started to trade points for the next four minutes. MSU cut the lead to three, with a 7-4 run, with just over 11 minutes left on the clock.

Over the next two minutes MSU kept the lead around four-to-six points before the Racers started a 4-0 run over a 30 second span to cut the deficit to two (54-56). The teams resumed trading baskets and the deficit toggled between one and two possessions for the next three minutes before the Lady Tigers built the lead back to eight points, with a 5-0 run, with five minutes left to play. TSU continued to push the tempo of the game and rebuilt a double-digit lead with three minutes left in the game.

After holding their opponents to just five made triples in the last three outings, the Racers saw TSU hit nine, including seven in the opening stanza. The Lady Tigers had a strong shooting night from behind the line, hitting 47.4 percent of their 19 attempts.

After struggling shooting in the opening half (26.5%), the Racers rebounded with a 47.1 percentage in the second to end the game shooting 36.8 percent from the field and beyond the arc. TSU also shot better in the second half, but earned a 43.8 percentage on the night.

The Racers will conclude their short road trip in Clarksville, Tenn., Saturday, Jan.9 when then battle with Austin Peay at 2 p.m. in the Dunn Center.

Notes: This was the first loss to TSU since Feb. 5, 2008 in the RSEC (85-90 OT).

Quotes
Head Coach Rob Cross
“They dominated us on the boards in the second half. We were outrebounding them by three in the first half, but they did an outstanding job reversing that in the second.”

“We put ourselves down in the first half by not playing defense on one particular player that we had talked about how to defend heading into the game. Kesi Hess was able to hit five threes in the first half and that helped them gain the 10-point lead and that was the ball game.”

“You can't make mental errors and win basketball games.”