Story by Gage Johnson
Senior writer
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
“We knew we needed winners,” she said. “Winning is a habit. It’s not something you just do. You have to prepare and do whatever it takes to win, and then sustain that level of play.”
That was the mindset Murray State women’s basketball Head Coach Rechelle Turner had when embarking on the challenge of compiling her first recruiting class. The Racer women’s basketball team struggled last year, finishing the season 11-19 after an early conference tournament exit. Despite the shortcomings in her inaugural season, Turner made her mark on the recruiting trail in an effort to flip the script in her second season, securing eight new commitments for next season.
Turner kicked off her recruiting with a big fall session, signing five future Racer athletes.
Before becoming head coach at Murray State, Turner was a decorated coach at Murray High School for over 21 seasons. Of the five incoming recruits she signed in the fall, three were her former players.
Those former Murray High athletes consist three 1,000-point scorers: freshman guard Lex Mayes, freshman forward Alexis Burpo and standout freshman guard Macey Turley, who is also a member of the 500-assist club.
“We really feel that Macey Turley coming in at point guard is really going to change things for us,” Turner said. “She is the type of player that the bigger the game, the bigger the stage, the more she steps up.”
Turner’s two other fall commits were freshman forward Sadie Hill, a multi-sport athlete out of Perry Meridian High School, and junior forward DeAsia Outlaw, a JUCO transfer from Wabash Valley College.
Hill received accolades in track and field and volleyball to go along with her basketball achievements, and was named all-county her junior year. Outlaw was ranked in the Top 20 in the country with her 57 percent shooting percentage and was selected for the NJCAA Top-40 All-Star game.
Turner added two more commitments to the original five in the second week of April: freshman forward Macie Gibson out of Owsley County High School, and junior center Cekeya Mack, a JUCO transfer from Albany Tech.
Gibson received a myriad of accolades in her outstanding OCHS career, including the 2017 regional and district MVP, as well as being named a Miss Kentucky Basketball finalist after leading the state in scoring (31.2 PPG) and rebounding (17.2 RPG). Gibson finished her career with 3,169 points and 1,700 rebounds.
Mack earned a spot as a First Team All-Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association honoree after finishing sixth in the nation in rebounds (12 RPG), and 24th in the country in scoring (18.7 PPG). Mack’s 50 percent shooting also earned her an Honorable Mention All-American honor.
The Racers also added another freshman in walk-on guard from Muhlenberg County High School, Raegan Blackburn. Blackburn was a 2017-18 All-State honorable mention, a member of the 1,000-point club and earned multiple all-district and all-region team selections during her high school career.
With newfound depth, Turner hopes to be able to achieve the full-court pressure her team applied late in games throughout next season, among other things.
“This class is going to be able to do a lot of different things,” Turner said. “These kids are high-IQ basketball players as well, so I feel like we can play several different styles depending on who’s on the floor. We can go eight, nine, 10 deep next year and we wouldn’t miss a beat.”
Despite the growing pains that are sure to come with nine new players taking the floor, Turner expects that her team will only grow closer as the season wears on.
“We’re going to be young and inexperienced, but there will be no excuses made,” Turner said. “We’re going to have to be patient and understanding, but I do believe that when it comes conference time we can surprise some people.”