Story by Gage Johnson
Senior writer
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
Turnovers have been the Racers’ achilles heel early on this season, but after a rough first quarter, polished second half play helped lead Murray State women’s basketball to its first conference win of the season, an 81-63 victory over Eastern Kentucky Saturday night.
Coming off of a 22-point loss in their conference opener to Morehead State, the Racers looked to claim an OVC win before a four-game road trip.
While the Racers closed out the first quarter only trailing by three, eight first quarter turnovers, half of their 17.3 season average, put them in a tough spot going into the second quarter.
However, Murray State was able to keep to just four turnovers during the second quarter thanks to fullcourt pressure led by freshman guard Alexis Burpo. The pressure sparked a 14-2 run to give the Racers a 37-24 lead with 2:00 left in the half. This led to Murray State taking a 37-28 command into the locker room.
“I thought we’re having trouble scoring the basketball, so we need to change, and we need to make defense create offense for us,” said Head Coach Rechelle Turner. “I felt like we were deeper than them, and felt like we could pressure on them.”
After a back-and-forth battle in the third quarter of play, Murray State controlled both ends of the floor. The Racers held the Colonels to 14 points in the fourth quarter, and by scoring 22 in the quarter, came away with the victory.
This game marks one of the best shooting performances for Murray State this season with four players in double figures. Sophomore guard Janika Griffith-Wallace had 11, Burpo had 12, freshman guard Lex Mayes had 16 and junior forward Evelyn Adebayo notched her sixth double-double of the season with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
While Adebayo tagged another double-double onto her impressive statline this season, it was Burpo’s energizer bunny-style of play on both sides of the ball that she praised.
“It’s always good that we can rely on her to give us that energy and that push that we needed, especially to get stops on the defensive end,” Adebayo said. “It’s always good to know she’s going to force turnovers to get us more scores.”
Murray State will now hit the road for a four-game stretch starting with the game against UT Martin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 10, at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.