Racers Grind Out Historic Win at Belmont

Tuesday, January 19

Nashville, Tenn.

4 p.m.

Murray State

6-6,3-4OVC

Belmont

4-3,1-1OVC

Murray St.

Belmont

1/19/2021 7:25:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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MSU hands Belmont just its second home OVC loss since start of 2018-19 season

The Murray State women's basketball team picked up a signature win Tuesday night with a 72-66 win over Belmont at the Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

The win was just the third ever for the Racers over the Bruins, the first since Belmont joined the OVC for the 2012-13 season, as well as the first ever at the Curb Event Center. Prior to Tuesday, the Bruins were 43-1 in OVC play at home and 62-5 at home overall since the beginning of the 2018-19 season.

It was back and forth from the start, with seven lead changes and seven ties and neither team ever having more than an eight-point advantage. After nearly 35 minutes of a see-saw battle for the lead between the two teams, Destinee Wells hit a pair of free throws with 4:52 to play to tie the game at 58. Seven seconds later Macie Gibson hit her own pair of free throws to give her team a lead it would never relinquish en route to the 72-66 win.

Free throws played a huge role in the game with MSU finishing the night at 21-for-25 including a 12-for-14 clip in the final five minutes of the game. Macey Turley was the driving force behind the free throw effort in the final minutes by hitting each of her eight attempts in the last 1:28 of the game to push her current consecutive made free throw streak to 43.

Rebounding was also a big factor for the Racers in the win, as they outrebounded the Bruins 42-32 in the game. Katelyn Young pulled down a career-best 16 boards Tuesday, while also scoring 13 points for her third double-double of the season. Alexis Burpo and Laci Hawthorne also had big nights on the glass with seven and six, respectively.

Turely led MSU in scoring in the game with 24, while in addition to Young's 13, Hawthorne followed with 11 and Burpo added 10. Murray State is now 5-0 this season when four or more Racers reach double-digits in scoring.

The Racers will have little time to celebrate the win as they return home for the first time in three games Thursday to host Jacksonville State at the CFSB Center at 4:30 p.m. om ESPN+, WNBS 97.9 FM and Zeno radio app.