For the first time ever, Murray State women’s basketball is playing for a Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) championship.
After a comfortable 36-point win over Bradley on Friday, March 14, the Racers had a much tougher test standing in front of them: the Drake Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs beat the fifth-seeded Illinois State Redbirds 75-69 and had to play a full 40 minutes to make sure they won. Drake’s victory set up the third meeting between the Bulldogs and Racers this season.
The first half was all Murray State and as Head Coach Rechelle Turner put it, “might’ve been some of the best basketball (they) have ever played.” The Racers took a 59-43 lead into halftime spearheaded by graduate forward Katelyn Young. Her 24 first half points moved her into 16th all-time on the Division 1 women’s basketball career scoring list.
Senior forward Ava Learn and sophomore guard Haven Ford each finished the half with 10 points. The Racers went into halftime shooting 61% from the field and 54% from the three-point line.
Drake’s Katie Dinnebier showed that despite grinding out a close game the night prior, she wasn’t going to let her team go down easy. She finished the half with 16 points and was the only Bulldog above double digit points in the half.
The Racers pushed their lead out to 24 points with 6:03 left in the third quarter but Drake kept fighting. Murray State’s lead started to slowly diminish, taking a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter. Murray State kept their lead above double digits but Dinnebier scored eight straight points in 2:50 to cut the Racers lead to seven with 33 seconds left in the game.
Despite scoring Drake’s last 10 points of the game on her own and Murray State not scoring a field goal for the final 6:02, Dinnebier and the Bulldogs couldn’t complete the comeback. Murray State survived and won 96-90 in what is now the highest scoring game in MVC Tournament history. Murray State’s 96 points are the second-most points scored in a MVC Tournament game.
Young led the Racers with 30 points, six rebounds and six assists. Ford, Learn and sophomore guard Halli Poock had 18 points each. Ford added five assists and four rebounds to her statline, as well as going a team-best 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. Learn grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to record her 12th double-double of the season. 11 of Poock’s 18 points came from the free-throw line.
Dinnebier scored 45 of the Bulldogs 90 points as she attempted to single-handedly claw Drake into the lead. Only one other Drake player finished with double digit points. That was guard Abbie Aalsma who finished with 12.
Murray State advances to the championship game where they will play the Belmont Bruins at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 16 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The game will air on ESPN2.
