Racers Fall in Overtime to Cleveland State

Tuesday, December 20

University, Miss.

5:00 PM

Murray State

Cleveland State

Photo by: Tab Brockman

12/20/2011 9:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score I Box Score (pdf)

The Murray State women's basketball team dropped a 68-61 decision to Cleveland State in overtime in the second game of the Magnolia Classic in Oxford, Miss.

The Racers (3-8) were led by junior Mariah Robinson, who tallied 23 points and added six rebounds and six steals. Red-shirt sophomore Erica Burgess added 17 points and a career-best nine rebounds. Senior Kayla Lowe was the final MSU player in double-digits, with 10 and eight boards.

“I thought we played hard in this tournament,” said head coach Rob Cross. “But we just didn't get the results we needed and wanted. I'm proud of the effort, but we need to get a little bit smarter and put the ball in the basket.”

The Vikings started the half with a 4-0 run in the first minutes of the game, but the Racers responded with a 12-1 run over 2:30 to take an 18-12 lead. The run included eight-straight points from Robinson (two three's). MSU held on to the lead throughout the half despite several runs by CSU. The Vikings cut the disadvantage to one (21-20), with a 6-0 run, in the middle of the stanza and again to one (27-26), with a 4-0 run that ended with 4:30 to play in the half. The Racers countered with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes to increase their lead to 10 (36-26). The Vikings made a final push in the final 1:30 of the stanza with a 5-0 run, but MSU still went into the locker room leading 36-31.

CSU continued its run from the end of the first half in the second, scoring the first four points of the stanza to cut the lead to one (36-35). The Racers pushed back out to a six-point lead, with 12 minutes to play, before the Vikings again made a small 5-0 run to cut the lead to two. After a three-minute span with no scoring, CSU used an 8-0 run to take a 55-52 lead that they held on to until 5.4 seconds remained and Lowe tied the game on a lay-up to force overtime.

The Vikings opened the overtime period with a 3-0 run before the Racers went on a 4-0 run to take a 60-59 lead. However, CSU then used a 9-1 run, mostly at the free-throw line, to earn the 68-61 win.

After shooting 48.1 percent in the opening half, the Racers ended the game shooting 31.3 percent from the field and 25.9 percent from beyond the arc. The Vikings made 39.0 percent of their overall shots and 26.3 percent of those from three-point range. Free throws became a key in the game, as CSU went 17-of-23 (8-of-10 in overtime) to MSU's 12-of-19 (3-of-7 in overtime) from the charity stripe.

MSU will now be idle for the Holiday break before opening Ohio Valley Conference action at Southeast Missouri, Dec. 31 at 1 p.m. at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo.