Adam Redfern
Staff writer
Murray State’s women’s basketball team is sitting at a 13-16 (9-9) record with the help of its two leading scorers, but in the midst of a postseason push the team needs another consistent scorer to slip into the OVC tournament.
The Racers are getting 18.3 ppg out of junior forward Evelyn Adebayo and 13.4 ppg from freshman forward Macey Turley. However, oftentimes its the inability for the Racers to find offense out of the rest of their team that costs them.
“It seems like we have two players step up each game, but we still can’t get that third or fourth player,” Turner said. “It is the inconsistency of the scoring that has really put us in a hole, but defensively our kids continue to come out and compete each and every night. If we can put both of those ends of the the floor together we would be a tough out.”
The Racers’ offense has predominantly gone through Adebayo, though some games Turley has led the pack. Adebayo has led the Racers in scoring in 18 of their 28 games this season, and Turley has led them in scoring in six games.
At times a third option for Murray State has been sophomore guard Janika Griffith-Wallace. Griffith-Wallace has led the Racers in scoring in five games and averages 10.9 ppg. While she is shooting 36 percent from the field and 33 percent from three on the season, she seems to have filled the role as of late, scoring in double digits in nine of the Racers’ last 10 games.
Another possible scorer could be freshman guard Lex Mayes. Mayes has the third-most minutes on the team with 844 minutes played, but is averaging 7.5 ppg. This could be due to fewer shot attempts than her fellow starters. Mayes has only shot 175 shots, with 131 coming from three. She’s shown she is capable of being the solution to the offense, shooting 37 percent from behind the arc.
Turner wants her team to not be afraid when it comes to the offensive side of the ball.
“I believe we need to get more shot attempts up; that is one thing we don’t do is getting enough shot attempts,” Turner said. “We need more quantity. Sometimes we don’t take good shots, and sometimes we wait for the perfect shot and that is not gonna come. We need to work on finding a happy medium and pick up our pace of play a little bit. We have kids going out there doing what we need them to do, but we just don’t have enough.”
With the OVC tournament around the corner, the Racers are looking to make a run at the OVC title. With one or two more consistent scorers outside of Turley and Adebayo, Murray State could be a dangerous team in the postseason this year.
Whether it is Griffith-Wallace, Mayes, or another Racer on the roster, a third and potentially fourth scorer is crucial to pushing the team to a deep run in Evansville.
