Story by Gage Johnson
Senior writer
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
Murray State women’s basketball will look to continue its hot streak going into Valentine’s Day weekend, taking on Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay in hopes of moving up the OVC standings.
The Racers sit at 9-14 overall with a 5-7 conference record after defeating EIU and SIUE last weekend, creating a three-way tie for the seventh spot in the conference. The upcoming matchups are critical for the team to claim a spot in the OVC tournament, and Head Coach Rechelle Turner is letting her players know.
“They’re must win,” Turner said. “We don’t sugarcoat things for our players. We walk in the locker room and say this is a game we gotta win. These are two games we have to win if we want to go to Evansville.”
Eastern Kentucky:
EKU currently sits at 2-21 overall with an 0-12 conference record. Murray State defeated the Colonels in its previous matchup on Jan. 5 by a score of 81-63.
The Colonels are led by three double-figure scorers in senior forward Abby Wright (11.9 ppg), junior guard Shay Solomon (10.7 ppg) and sophomore forward Bria Bass (10.1 ppg). However, the lack of offensive support from the rest of the team has EKU as the lowest scoring offense in the OVC (53.2 ppg).
While the Colonels may have not won a game since December, Head Coach Rechelle Turner wants her players taking things game-by-game for this tough weekend on the road.
“Right now all we’re focused on is Eastern,” Turner said. “We’re going to come in today and we’re going to go just as hard or harder today than we’ve gone all year. We just have to get better every single day and take care of business this week on the road.”
Austin Peay:
The Racers will take on the Governors in a Battle of the Border matchup in Clarksville, Tennessee, on Saturday, Feb 16. Currently the Racers lead Austin Peay 12-6 in the Battle of the Border. This will be the first of two matchups with Austin Peay, the latter happening in March.
The Governors find themselves in a similar situation to Murray State, sitting at 11-12 overall and 6-6 in conference play to tie themselves with SEMO for the fifth seed in the OVC.
They are coming off of a rare home loss against EIU and will face off against Morehead State on Thursday before taking on the Racers. Austin Peay has done well defending its home court this season, going 9-3 at home, but has struggled on the road with a 2-9 record.
Austin Peay is led offensively by senior guard Keisha Gregory (13.1 ppg) and junior forward Arielle Gonzalez-Varner (12.1 ppg).
On the road again:
Murray State will hit the road for its first road matchup of the weekend on Valentine’s Day hoping to improve its road record and move up in the OVC standings. The Racers will tip-off against Eastern Kentucky at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Alumni Coliseum.