Racers Set to Battle Jacksonville State for Pink Zone Game

Saturday, February 12

CFSB Center

5:15 p.m.

Murray State

Jacksonville State

Sophomore Mariah Robinson had a record-setting night against JSU earlier this season, with 44 points, eight rebounds, nine three pointers and three assists.

Photo by: Fred Mullane

Racers Set to Battle Jacksonville State for Pink Zone Game

2/11/2011 2:29:13 PM | Women's Basketball

Game 25
Murray State (6-18, 2-11 OVC) vs. Jacksonville State (9-16, 6-8 OVC)
Location: Murray, Ky.
Arena: CFSB Center
Time: 5:15 p.m.

The Game
The Murray State women's basketball team will host Jacksonville State, Saturday, Feb. 12 at 5:15 p.m. at the CFSB Center. The game is the annual Pink Zone night and fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game.

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Scouting Jacksonville State
The Gamecocks head to Murray, Ky., after suffering a 91-60 loss to UT Martin Thursday night. The loss moved their record to 9-16 overall and 6-8 in conference play.

This season JSU has a key leader on the court in Brittany Wiley, but she missed the last game due to a medical issue. Wiley averaged 14.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and has taken over 100 more shots than anyone else on the team, including 50 more from beyond the arc. Danielle Vaughn is the next leader for the Gamecocks, with 9.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. She is also a strong shooter, making 62.6 percent of her 162 attempts and adding 20 blocks. Destiny Lane is another player to watch, as she has taken the second-most shots on the team and is tied for the most triple attempts. However she is shooting at a .311 clip overall and just .221 from beyond the arc.

Besides Wiley, the rest of the nine players that have seen action in all of JSU's games are clustered together in the stats columns.

The Gamecocks are being out-scored by their opponents by 7.9 points per game, but keep the averages for both teams around the same as MSU. JSU is a stronger rebounding team, with just a -0.2 average on the year (38.5/38.7).

Against the Gamecocks
Sophomore Mariah Robinson had the night of her career, with 44 points, nine three-point shots, eight rebounds and three assists the first time the teams met this season. The Beaver Dam, Ky., native's 44 points were the second most in school history and her nine triples set a new standard for an MSU player. Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey was also strong for MSU, with 12 points and eight boards. Junior Kayla Lowe was next on the scoring list with eight points.

The Racers had an impressive shooting night, making 52.8 percent of their shots (59.3 in the second half) and 42.9 of those from beyond the arc (60 in the second). MSU also took advantage of their trips to the charity stripe, making 15-of-16 attempts, while the Gamecocks made just half of the same number of attempts. JSU earned an advantage on the boards, with a 43-33 mark, including a 22-4 lead on the offensive side.

Brittany Wiley led the Gamecocks with 27 points and added four rebounds. Danielle Vaughn contributed six points and a team-best 13 boards, while Brittany Manning added 14 points.

The Series
This is the shortest series against a conference opponent, with Saturday's game marking just the 15th meeting. MSU leads the all-time series 12-2 and is 4-2 when playing at home. The Racers have won the last nine games and their last loss at home came Feb. 4, 2006.

Pink Zone
Saturday's game is the annual Pink Zone night to help raise awareness for breast cancer. Murray-Calloway County Hospital will have an information booth in the concourse to hand out information on breast cancer prevention and about the services available in the area for cancer patients. Those in attendance are encouraged to wear pink in support of the cause.

Academic Honors Again
Junior Rachael Isom was named to the Capital One Academic All-District IV second team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The honor marks the second-straight season that Isom has been named to the second team. The award also makes it the fourth-straight season that a Racer player has been named to the All-District IV team. Isom carries a 4.00 grade point average in English literature. The Cleveland, Tenn., native leads the team with 51 assists this season while also recording 7.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game.

To be consider for the Academic All-District teams, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore in eligibility and own a minimum 3.30 grade-point average.

Winfrey Winning Honors
Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey earned her first OVC honor, after being named the adidas OVC Freshman of the Week for Feb. 7. This is the second player of the week honor for an MSU player this season.

Winfrey tallied her team-leading seventh double-double of the year at Tennessee State with a career-best 17 points and 12 rebounds. She fell one board shy of a double-double at Austin Peay with 16 points and nine rebounds. She shot 48.0 percent from the floor and went 9-of-11 at the free throw line for the week.

Robinson Raining Three's
Sophomore Mariah Robinson had the game of her career Jan. 13 in Jacksonville, Ala. The Beaver Dam, Ky., native recorded the second-most points in school history (44) and tallied a school-record nine three pointers. The previous record was set by Megan Fuqua and her current coach Ashley B. Hayes (8). Robinson also added a career-best nine free throws and 13 field goals. She was not just a scoring threat for MSU in the game, as she added eight rebounds and three assists.

Double Double-Double Nights
For the second time this season two members of the team garnered double-doubles on the same night. Sophomore Mariah Robinson earned her second of the season, with 25 points and a career-best 14 rebounds against UT Martin. Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey added her sixth of the year, with 11 points and 13 rebounds. This marked the first time since the 2000-01 campaign that MSU had two players with double-doubles in the same game twice in a season.

In the win over Eastern Illinois (Jan. 20), the Racers had two players earn double-doubles for the first time since Dec. 18, 2008 when Ashley N. Hayes (14 pts., 12 reb.) and Amber Guffey (20 pts., 11 reb.) each had one. Robinson earned her first career double-double, with 29 points and 11 rebounds, while Winfrey earned her fourth of the season (11 pts., 10 reb.).

Elkins Elevating Performance
After playing sparingly in the first few games of the season, sophomore Tessa Elkins has become a key reserve in the lineup and earned her first starting role against the Gamecocks. Elkins has played double-digit minutes since the Dec. 22 game at UT Martin and has recorded 10-or-more points in five of those outings. She has recorded season-bests in all categories, including a career-high 13 points against TTU, four steals and seven free throws against APSU and three blocks versus UTM.

Jessica Jumping Right In
Red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey has been a stable force for the Racers in her first season on the court. The Marion, Ark., native is first on the team in rebounding, averaging 9.3 boards per game, is third in scoring (10.4 ppg) and has tallied six double-doubles. Her talents on the court have led to her scoring at least one point and adding at least one rebound in every Racers game this season, while also recording 21 steals and eight blocks.

No Senior Leadership
After fighting through an injury plagued year in 2009-10 the Murray State women's basketball team will be in a select group of NCAA DI teams this season that will allow them to use the drive and determination they discovered last year, as the roster has no seniors listed. The Racers are one of seven programs in the country with no seniors on the 2010-11 roster.

The youthful roster has just nine years of NCAA collegiate experience on it, which ranks third among OVC teams for the least amount of NCAA collegiate experience. The only teams with fewer years of experience than the Racers are UT Martin (3) and Eastern Illinois (8).

Up Next
The Racers will return to the road for the final weekend of away regular-season conference play, Feb. 17-19. MSU will first head to Southeast Missouri (Feb. 17) and then travel on to face Eastern Illinois (Feb. 19). The final two regular-season games of the season will be contested in the CFSB Center against Morehead State (Feb. 24) and Eastern Kentucky (Feb. 26).