Racers Start Final Road Swing of Season at Southeast Missouri

Thursday, February 17

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

7 p.m.

Murray State

Southeast Missouri

Junior Mallory Schwab has regained a starting role for MSU in the last two games.

Photo by: Fred Mullane

Racers Start Final Road Swing of Season at Southeast Missouri

2/15/2011 12:02:43 PM | Women's Basketball

Game 26
Murray State (7-18, 3-11 OVC) at Southeast Missouri (8-16, 4-10 OVC)
Location: Cage Girardeau, Mo.
Arena: Show Me Center
Time: 7 p.m.

The Game
The Murray State women's basketball team will set out for Cape Girardeau, Mo., to start the final weekend of regular-season road games. The Racers (7-18, 3-11 OVC) will first stop to try and take a game from Southeast Missouri State, Thursday, Feb. 17 at the Show Me Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Game Notes
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Scouting Southeast Missouri
The Redhawks have three main shooters, but as a team they share the statistics across the board. No one is averaging more than 9.4 points per game and six of the 12 team members are netting over five points per outing. The same can be said for rebounding, as one player is averaging over 4.5 boards per game and seven more are coming up with 2.0-4.5.

The three main shooters are Katie Norman, Brittany Harriel and Bailie Roberts, who have all attempted over 185 shots. The trio also had good aim, with Harriel hitting her shots at a .419 mark, Norman at a .390 clip and Roberts at a .372 mark. The decent aim continues beyond the arc as well (Harriel-.333/Norman-.300/Roberts-.254). Norman leads the team with 9.4 points per game and adds 4.0 rebounds. Harriel is second on the team in points (8.8) and first in rebounding (6.3) Roberts is third with 7.6 points and second on the boards (4.2).

As was evident in the first meeting with the Racers, the Redhawks like to keep the scoring lower and the defense high. SEMO is averaging just 52.8 points per game and is allowing 65.0 (-12.3). While in all games this season the Redhawks have larger differences in the scoring sheet from their opponents, when they play teams from the OVC the difference is reduced and sometimes reversed. Overall SEMO is shooting three percent lower than its opponents, but that difference is lowered to just one percent in league play. However when shooting from beyond the arc, overall the Redhawks trail their opponents (.291 to .301) and when playing just OVC schools they have a .310 to .288 advantage.

Against the Redhawks
MSU dropped a defensive battle to Southeast Missouri, 48-44, at the CFSB Center in the final game of the first half of Ohio Valley Conference action in the 2010-11 campaign.

The Racers were led by red-shirt freshman Jessica Winfrey. The Marion, Ark., native tallied her second-consecutive double-double and the fifth of the season, with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Mariah Robinson added nine points and junior Kayla Lowe contributed eight points and five rebounds.

Free throws were the key differential in the game, with SEMO not only making more, but also earning more than double the chances. The Redhawks went 15-of-18 from the free-throw line, while MSU was allowed to attempt just seven shots (making six). A rebounding disadvantage for the Racers was also a key stat, with MSU being out-rebounded 45-34. Both teams were held to low scoring averages for the game, with the Racers holding a slight advantage, at 32.1 percent to 26.4.

The key players for the Redhawks were Shelia Fields and Brittany Harriel. Fields tallied 11 points, while Harriel added nine points and 13 rebounds.

The Series
The all-time series with SEMO is one of four against OVC opponents that the Racers do not have an advantage in. The Redhawks own a 31-22 lead in the series and earned the win in the last meeting. MSU has been victories in three of the last five meetings and earned a win in the last game played at the Show Me Center (90-72/Jan. 23, 2010).

Schwab Adding Spark
Junior Mallory Schwab has been stepping up her output in the past few weeks and earned a starting role back. Schwab had started the first nine games of the year, but did not start again for 14 games. Since returning to the top of the line-up, the Martinsville, Ind., native has added a spark to the team. In the game against Jacksonville State, Schwab tallied a season-best 14 points, shot 62.5 percent from the field, 50 percent from beyond the arc and added three boards and two assists.

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.).

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 9.5 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 10 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 wrap up their regular-season road games with a stop in Charleston, Ill., to battle Eastern Illinois, Saturday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. in Lantz Arena.