Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Louisville
Racers Face Tough Test at No. 4 Louisville
11/22/2017 1:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Date/Time: Nov. 24/Noon, 1 p.m., ET
Site: Louisville, Ky. – KFC Yum! Center
Opponent (Record): No. 4 Louisville (5-0)
Murray State Record: 1-3
Watch Live: ACC Network Extra
Listen Live: WNBS 1340 AM (Jeremy Rose PxP)
Live Stats
All-Time vs. Louisville: Louisville leads the all-time series 15-8
Last Meeting: MSU 62, UofL 105 – Nov. 29, 2011
Twitter In-Game: @RacersWBB
The Murray State women face their toughest test yet in the 2017-18 season as the Racers travel to Louisville to face the fourth-ranked Cardinals Friday.
Louisville enters Friday's contest having knocked off three ranked teams already in 2017, including a pair of top-10 opponents. Louisville features a pair of All-Americans in Asia Durr and Myisha Hines-Allen who helped lead the Cardinals to the Sweet 16 a season ago. Durr leads the team averaging 21.6 points per game this season while Hines-Allen is averaging 14.6 points and a team-best 11.2 rebounds per game. As a team, Louisville is shooting 48.7 percent from the floor overall and 45.1 percent from 3-point range. The Cardinals are 4-0 at home this season.
The Racers are coming off a tough, 65-64 loss Tuesday at Lipscomb. MSU shot just 35.4 percent in the loss and went just 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) at the free-throw line. Entering Tuesday, the Racers were fourth in the nation in free-throw percentage at 85.7 percent.
Bria Bethea led MSU with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting and 5-of-11 from 3-point range while also adding eight rebounds and a pair of blocks. Ke'Shunan James had 19 points and grabbed a career-best 17 boards in the contest.
Despite the season-low 19 points, James ranks second in the country in scoring average at 26.8 points per game. She and Bethea are the highest-scoring duo in the nation presently, combining to score 48.1 points per game. Bethea's 21.3 average ranks tied for 33rd in the country. Brown has the second-highest scoring pair in Justine Gaziano (21.3) and Shayna Mehta (20.7) who combine to average 42 a game. MSU and Brown are the only two schools in Division I that have a pair of top-50 scorers.
Tuesday morning, James also took home her second consecutive ADIDAS OVC Women's Basketball Player of the Week honor to begin 2017-18. James averaged 29 points to go along with 6.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game last week against Butler and Northern Kentucky.
