Jakob Milani
Staff Writer
The Murray State women’s basketball team played their first home game of the season Tuesday night against the University of Evansville Purple Aces, walking away with a 84-61 victory for their first win of the season.
While this was Evansville’s season opener, the Racers were coming off of an impressive showing against the University of Kentucky.
The key to success for the Racers was to play big and try to score inside, while the Purple Aces were trying to slow down the shooting and double-team the main scoring options.
At the start of the game, Evansville managed to keep the game close, even going up 9-4 over Murray State. But the Racers came right back at the Purple Aces, with junior guard Lex Mayes making back-to-back threes to take a 10-9 lead.
After Evansville scored another layup, Murray State answered right back with a layup of its own, taking a 12-11 lead.
Murray State didn’t give the lead back to Evansville, ending the first quarter leading 22-17, with the Racers being led in scoring up to this point by Mayes with nine points exclusively from beyond the arc.
Murray State broke through in the second quarter, outscoring Evansville 17-8. Turnovers were abundant for both teams in the second quarter, with the Racers turning the ball over eight times, while the Purple Aces turned it over six times. However, come halftime, the score was 39-25 in favor of Murray State.
Going into the locker room, the Racers were led by Mayes with 12 points, all of which were three-pointers, and freshman forward Hannah McKay, who had eight points on 3-3 shooting as well as six rebounds, all while coming off of the bench.
The second half was all Murray State. In the third quarter, the Racers continued to grow their lead, while also playing outstanding defense. When the Purple Aces scored their first field goal of the third with 4:33 left, it ended a 13-minute and 40-second field goal drought for the team, stemming back to 8:13 left in the second quarter. The third quarter ended with the Racers up 62-37.
The fourth quarter was less defensive for Murray State, allowing Evansville to score 24 points. However, the Racers still closed the game out, scoring 22 points of their own, nine of which came from three-pointers.
The bench played a large role in the win over Evansville, with 33 total points coming from bench players.
Head Coach Rechelle Turner said the depth is something that will make a difference for the team going forward.
“The one thing that’s special about this team and what I think will be a determining factor of how far we can go is that I literally have ten kids I could probably start, but only five can start at a time,” Turner said. “But the kids that came in off the bench came in with energy. It wasn’t about who started and who didn’t. And some of those kids ended in double figures, so it’s exciting to have that depth.”
McKay ended the game as the leading scorer, responsible for 13 points and six rebounds off the bench.
“My mentality going into the game is always just play hard and go 100 percent and do whatever I can to help the team,” McKay said.
The Racers had plenty of other big scorers, including Mayes with 12 points, all of which came from three-pointers, junior guard Macey Turley with 12 points, two rebounds and two assists, and senior forward Laci Hawthorne with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Mayes talked about how the team managed to score against Evansville in the game, including the team’s focus on scoring from outside once the defense continued to collapse on the paint.
“Coach just said make sure you’re shooting the ball when you’re open and get good shots up,” Mayes said. “And in the second half, they went man which allowed us to hit our post more. So we were just focussed on knocking down the shots, trying to get them out of the zone so our post could be options.”
With a win now under Murray State’s belt, the Racers will look to grab back-to-back wins in their second road game of the season at Indiana State. The game will be on Friday, Dec. 4, and is set to start at 5 p.m.
