Racers Get Back on Winning Track with 78-64 Win over Saint Louis

Saturday, December 3

CFSB Center

7:00 PM

Murray State

Saint Louis

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Racers Get Back on Winning Track with 78-64 Win over Saint Louis

12/3/2011 10:47:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score I Box Score (pdf)

After falling to Saint Louis a week ago, the Murray State women's basketball team returned to the CFSB Center and earned a 78-64 win over the Billikens (2-5) to stay perfect at home in 2011-12.

The Racers (3-4) were led by red-shirt sophomore Erica Burgess, who tallied a career-best 21 points and four steals. Junior Mariah Robinson was one of three other MSU players in double digits in the scoring column. The Beaver Dam, Ky., native tallied 14 points and added a team-best nine rebounds. Senior Kayla Lowe and junior Tessa Elkins were the other two players in double figures for the Racers, with 12 each.

The first half saw the team's trade runs. After the first baskets by both teams, the Billikens went on the first run (6-0) to take an 8-2 advantage. SLU increased the led to 12-4, but that's when the Racers pushed the tempo of the game. MSU started a 10-0 run to take a 14-12 lead, with 12:33 remaining. The run continued until 9:15 remained, with the Billikens scoring just two points to the Racers 17 (21-14). SLU made a small run over the next minute to cut the advantage to three (21-18), but a Racers 9-0 run over the next five minutes gave them a 30-18 lead. The teams traded baskets for the rest of the half and MSU went into the intermission with a 39-30 advantage.

The Racers kept the lead around 10 for the first seven minutes of the second half, before an 8-0 run by SLU cut the lead to four (51-47), with 11:35 remaining to play. MSU did not let the advantage drop below three for the rest of the game and rebuilt its advantage to double digits with 4:30 left to play. SLU went on one final push and cut the deficit to six (66-60), but that was as close and they would get, as the Racers outscored them 12-4 in the final two minutes of the game for the 78-64 win.

MSU rebounded a little in shooting percentage, with a 38.6 mark, after shooting under 30 percent for the past three games. The Billikens were close behind the Racers in the shooting column, with a 35.7 percentage. However, SLU did have a clear 62.5 (5-of-8) percent to 22.7 (5-of-22) percent shooting advantage from beyond the arc. MSU forced the Billikens into 20 turnovers, while recording just nine of their own.

The Racers will now have a week off for finals before returning to the road for a six-game road swing that starts Saturday, Dec. 10 at Evansville. The 2 p.m. tip-off will conclude the second home-and-home series of the season for MSU and will be the first game in the series played in the new Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.