Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
UT Martin
Players Mentioned
Racers Open OVC Quest With UTM Wednesday
3/2/2020 5:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Date (Time): Mar. 4 (1 p.m.)
Opponent: UT Martin
Site (Venue): Evansville, Ind. (Ford Center)
Audio: WNBS 1340 AM (PxP: Jeremy Rose)
TV: ESPN+ (PxP: Connor Onion; Analyst: Helen Williams)
Live Stats: GoRacers.com
Twitter In Game: @RacersWBB
MUR Record (Streak): 14-15 (Lost 3)
UTM Record (Streak): 20-9 (Won 4)
All-Time Series vs. UTM (Streak): Skyhawks lead 50-37 (Lost 3)
All-Time Series at OVC Tournament (Streak): Series tied 2-2 (Lost 1)
Last Five vs. UTM: 1-4 (LLLWL)
The Games
The Murray State women's basketball team opens play in the 2020 OVC Women's Basketball Championship Wednesday against the top-seeded UT Martin Skyhawks at 1 p.m. at the Ford Center in Evansville.
Last Time Out
The Racers ended the 2019-20 season by splitting a pair of home games last week, edging Eastern Kentucky Thursday, 66-65, before falling to Austin Peay Saturday, 88-59. MSU found itself down by 12 to EKU at the end of the first quarter, but used hot shooting in the second half to pick up the win and secure the final spot in the OVC tournament as a result. Alexis Burpo led Murray State in the game with 21 points, while Laci Hawthorne followed with 19 and nine rebounds. Saturday against Austin Peay, it went exactly opposite for the Racers as they hung tough in the first half, but went cold in the second. Lex Mayes scored a team-high 18 points Saturday, while G'Torria Swinton added 11 points and nine boards and Hawthorne tallied nine points and 16 rebounds.
The UT Martin Series
Murray State and UT Martin have met 86 times previous to Wednesday with the Skyhawks holding a 14-game lead in the all-time series, 50-36. With a series sweep in the regular season, the Skyhawks have now won eight of the last nine meetings in the series. Wednesday will mark the fifth time the two teams have met at the OVC tournament with each team winning two meetings. The Racers won the first-ever OVC tournament between the two teams in the 2007 semifinals, 66-65 in overtime, and also won in 2016 when they knocked off the top-seeded Skyhawks, 78-76 in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the wins for Skyhawks came in the 2012 semifinals, 102-77, and in last year's quarterfinals, 77-56.
Scouting The Skyhawks
Despite of losing a key player to injury in the OVC opener, the Skyhawks continually got better this season to finish 16-2 and claim their first regular-season title since 2016. The Skyhawks currently shoot a blistering 43.9-percent from the floor and average 71.3 points per game, while limiting their opponents to 65.0. Chelsey Perry has made her case for Player of the Year this season by scoring 23.7 points per game, the second-highest average in the OVC, while leading the league in field goal percentage at 50.4. In addition, Perry averages team-highs in rebounds, blocks and steals per game at 8.0, 2.7 and 1.7, respectively, while leading the team at the charity stripe with an 86.9 clip. Maddie Waldrop has also been a force for UTM this year following Perry in both points and rebounds at 12.7 and 7.8.
Tournament History
This year marks Murray State's 25th appearance in the OVC tournament with a record of 12-23 all-time. The Racers have one at least one game on nine occasions and in 2008 won their lone tournament title.
Ten Wins
Laci Hawthorne won the OVC Newcomer of the Week award 10 times this with the latest coming on a 14.0 point and a 12.5 rebound performance in the final week of the regular-season.
