Women's Basketball Recaps - Jan. 23

Women's Basketball Recaps - Jan. 23

MONDAY'S SCORES
UT Martin 81, @Morehead State, 61
@Tennessee Tech 65, Jacksonville State 59
@Eastern Illinois 88, Tennessee State 73
@Murray State 86, Longwood 77
@SIUE 71, Austin Peay 61 


UT MARTIN 81, MOREHEAD STATE 61
MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State women's basketball team could not overcome a sluggish shooting night, falling 81-61 to UT Martin on Monday night at Johnson Arena.

MSU fell to 7-12 and 4-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while UT Martin improved to 11-8 and moved within one game of first place at 5-1 in the league. The Eagles had trouble from long distance, shooting just 2-of-28 from three-point range.

The Skyhawks were paced by Jasmine Newsome, pouring in a game-high 29 points to go along with seven rebounds and four assists.  OVC leading scorer Heather Butler added 16 points and four assists and scored her 1,000th career point in the process.

MSU tied the Skyhawks on the boards at 44-44 and held the league's top three-point shooting team to just a quartet of treys. But, MSU also committed 18 turnovers and allowed UTM to outscore it 48-30 in the paint.

MSU junior forward Ashar Harris, who entered the day ranked first in the nation in rebounding, tallied her ninth double-double with 19 points and 18 boards. She also became just the fifth player in school history to eclipse 900 career rebounds, upping her total to 910.

Lumpkin poured in a team-high 22 points and five rebounds, hitting 11-of-12 free throws, while senior guard Linda Dixon added nine points, nine rebounds, a career-best six blocks, two assists and two steals. Freshman guard Almesha Jones scored a career-high 11 points, her first career double-digit scoring effort.

Lumpkin moved into second place in career assists at MSU with two tonight and now 457 for her career.

For the game, MSU was limited to 30 percent shooting (21-of-68), while UTM shot 44 percent on 31-of-70 shooting, including a 50-percent mark in the second half (20-of-40).

After a slow start to the game, the Eagles used an 8-2 to run to take their only lead of the game at 10-7.  UT Martin utilized a 9-0 run midway through the half to take control of the game at 26-17.  The Skyhawks capitalized on 10 first-half Eagle miscues to hold an 11-point lead at halftime, 35-24.

In the second period, MSU trimmed the Skyhawk lead down to 51-37 following a Lumpkin triple at the 13:27 mark, but UTM went on a 13-4 scoring romp to take its largest lead of the night at 64-41 with 9:24 remaining.

TENNESSEE TECH 65, JACKSONVILLE STATE 59
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Tech women's basketball team had one of its best shooting nights of the season and put three players in double figures to claim a 65-59 Ohio Valley Conference victory over Jacksonville State Monday night, giving the Golden Eagles their fourth consecutive win in Eblen Center. 

Senior Tacarra Hayes led Tech (8-13/4-3 OVC) with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists while sophomore Molly Heady added 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting, five rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Jala Harris also scored in double digits with 11 points and led Tech with five assists.

Tech shot 54.2 percent in the second half to finish the game with a 47.2 percent shooting mark, the team's third-best game of the year. That included a 6-for-16 effort from long range, also the third-best effort of the season.

The solid shooting effort helped to overcome a dominant night on the boards by the Gamecocks (4-17/1-7 OVC), who grabbed 24 offensive rebounds and finished the contest with a 50-28 margin in total rebounds.

JSU also placed three players in double figures in scoring, led by Destiny Lane with 16 points. Danielle Vaughn scored a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Brittany Manning added 10 points. Briana Morrow came up just shy of a second double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Gamecocks shot 33.9 percent in the game but suffered 19 turnovers as Tech made nine steals. With their 24 offensive boards, the Gamecocks had a 18-4 advantage in second-chance points.

After the score was tied four times during the first half, the Golden Eagles put together an 8-0 run just before halftime to open a 27-19 lead before heading into the break up six points, 27-21.

Jacksonville State led once, early in the contest, when they went up 6-3 on a layup by Brianna Morrow with just 1:40 elapsed. Tech bounced back quickly with layups from Jala Harris and Tacarra Hayes, and things stayed tight for the next 13 minutes before Tech's late run snapped a 19-19 tie.

Tech quickly built a double-figure lead in the second half when Briana Jordan's layup with 16:56 to play made it 34-24. The lead grew to as many as 15 points in the next 10 minutes, a jumper by Harris with 6:50 to go making it a 49-34 difference.

The Golden Eagles maintained a double-figure lead into the final minute before JSU outscored Tech 7-2 in the final 27 seconds to cut the final difference to six points.

MURRAY STATE 86, LONGWOOD 77
MURRAY, Ky. - After trailing by five at the half, the Murray State women's basketball team came out in the second half and pushed through to an 86-77 victory over Longwood in a non-conference game at the CFSB Center.

The Racers (8-11, 4-3 OVC) were led by the trio of red-shirt sophomore Erica Burgess and juniors Mariah Robinson Kyra Watson.  Burgess and Robinson combined for the first time that two MSU players recorded 20+ points in the same game since March 2, 2010.  Burgess garnered a career-best 31 points and added four rebounds.  Robinson added 21 points and five boards.  Watson was also key to the Racers victory, recording her first double-double, with career highs of 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The first 10 minutes of the first half were a back-and-forth battle for control of the scoreboard.  With 9:30 left to play the Lancers (5-18) went on a 10-4 run to take control of the half (21-15).  The Racers made two 5-0 runs late in the half to cut the advantage to as little as one, but could not gain the lead and went into the locker room trailing 40-35.

In the first two minutes of the second stanza, the Racers cut the deficit to two, with a 5-2 run and then tied the game at 44 after a 9-4 run, with 16:15 left to play.  The teams traded points for the next three minutes before the Racers took over for good with a 6-0 run (56-50).  MSU pushed the lead out to as many as 13 (69-56), with nine minutes left to play.  The Lancers then made a final push over the next four minutes and managed to cut the deficit to four before the Racers pulled back out to as many as 10.

Free throws and turnovers were keys to the win for MSU.  The Racers hit 14-of-18 shots from the charity stripe and only allowed Longwood to make nine trips to the line (made 9).  MSU also forced the Lancers into 15 turnovers and committed just nine.  The Racers took full advantage of those turnovers, scoring 20 points.

EASTERN ILLINOIS 88, TENNESSEE STATE 73
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Three Panthers posted a double-double and six players scored in double figures to lead the Eastern Illinois women's basketball team over Tennessee State, 88-73, on Monday night inside Lantz Arena. EIU improves to 15-4 on the year and 6-0 in Ohio Valley Conference action.

Senior Chantelle Pressley posted her second double-double in as many games, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Junior Mariah King recorded her fifth double-double of the year as she scored 13 points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. Classmate Ta'Kenya Nixon nearly missed her second career triple-double, scoring 16 points, dishing out a career-high 12 assists and grabbing eight rebounds.

After trailing 4-3 in the opening minute and a half of action, the Panthers went on an 11-2 run to take a 14-6 lead at the 14:45 mark. EIU never trailed throughout the remainder of the game and took a 16-point advantage into the locker room.

EIU held onto its double-figure lead in the second stanza, leading by as much as 23 points (58-35) with 16:33 left in the game. The Lady Tigers continued to fight back and got within 12 points with just over two minutes remaining on the clock, but the Panther defense limited Tennessee State to only one point on 0-for-4 shooting in the closing minutes.

Sydney Mitchell added 15 points in the winning effort while both Kelsey Wyss and Jordyne Crunk scored 11 points, respectively. Crunk also had five assists and four rebounds.

EIU out rebounded Tennessee State 53-39 and had seven blocked shots, led by Pressley who had four.

The Panthers shot 48.5 percent (33-for-68) from the floor and went 9-for-18 from behind the arc. EIU also went 13-for-22 from the charity stripe, led by Crunk and Nixon who both went 4-for-4.

Jasmin Shuler led the Lady Tigers with a game-high 22 points while Destiney Gaston and Donyeah Mayfield both added 10 points. Mayfield also had a team-high eight rebounds

SIUE 72, AUSTIN PEAY 61
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Michaela Herrod and Raven Berry both finished with double-doubles Monday as SIUE women's basketball defeated Austin Peay 72-61 at the Vadalabene Center.

Herrod finished with 13 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Berry turned in a balanced 14 points and 13 rebounds. It was the sixth double-double of the season for Berry and the first for Herrod. The last time SIUE had two players with a double-double in the same game was last season against Austin Peay when Sydney Stahlberg and Berry completed the feat.

The Cougars matched their win total from all of last season with the victory. SIUE improved to 11-8 overall and 5-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Lady Govs fell to 5-16 overall and 2-6 in the OVC.

Four players scored in double figures for SIUE, including a team-high 17 points from freshman Katie Hempen and 12 from sophomore Jazmin Hill.

Austin Peay's Kaitlyn Hill also had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Whitney Hanley led all scorers with 25 points.

The game was truly back and forth for the first eight minutes. The Cougars scored the game's first eight points, and Austin Peay answered with a 17-3 run to take its biggest lead of the game 17-11 with 12:30 to play. The two teams exchanged leads four times before Austin Peay led at the break 34-32.

SIUE became more aggressive on offense and defense after falling behind by two at halftime.

The Cougars took five charges from four different players in the game. SIUE forced 26 turnovers from Austin Peay and accumulated 29 points off those turnovers.

Hempen got the Cougars started in the second half with a three-pointer with 17:52 to play that gave SIUE a 35-34 lead. Austin Peay's Jasmine Rayner then hit one free throw to tie the game 35-35 with 16:02 to play.

SIUE followed that with a 10-0 run capped off by a three-pointer by Hill, who is now alone in fifth all-time in career three-pointers. The Cougars pulled away by as much as 15 points before settling for the 11-point victory

SIUE shot 48.3 percent (14-29) in the second half and 41.3 percent (26-63) for the game. Austin Peay shot 42.4 percent for the contest (25-59) but was hampered by 27 fouls.