Story by Gage Johnson
Sports Editor
gjohnson17@murraystate.edu
Up 42-24 at the half, Murray State women’s basketball team seemed poised to come away with a crucial victory, before a 32-point fourth quarter for UT Martin had the game coming down to one final shot.
The Racers commanded play on both ends to start the game. They turned 1-7 shooting and five turnovers into a 10-2 run to. A fallaway three at the buzzer from freshman guard Macey Turley gave Murray State an 18-7 lead to end the first quarter.
While the Racers had a successful first quarter offensively, they ramped up their efficiency in the second quarter. Murray State shot 61.5 percent from the field and continued to sink shots from deep, heading into locker room shooting 7-for-14 from three. The Racers took their biggest lead of the game (18) into the second half, 42-24.
The third quarter has been a struggle on the season for Murray State. They’ve scored 450 points in the quarter on the year, while opponents have scored 492. Against the Skyhawks, the Racers were able to keep up the pace in the third. By holding UT Martin to 21.7 percent shooting, Murray State headed into the fourth holding onto a 58-41 lead, but the Skyhawks weren’t done flying yet.
A 9-0 run by UT Martin had them trailing the Racers 66-57 with 4:51 to play. The Skyhawks continued to chip away at Murray State’s lead, forcing 11 turnovers in the fourth quarter. This defensive effort left Murray State leading 74-71 with 16.8 seconds to play.
Head Coach Rechelle Turner said a matter of players stepping up when things aren’t going well is what contributed to the 11 turnovers in the fourth quarter.
“We’re a young basketball team that hasn’t been in that position very often,” Turner said. “When things are going good we want the basketball, but when things aren’t good we’d rather somebody else take it. Those are things we have to get better at. Those are things we’re going to have to have kids willing to be the goat. Everyone wants to be a hero, nobody wants to be the goat.”
A Racer turnover led to a bucket on the other end for UT Martin cut Murray State’s lead to 74-73. After two free throws from the Racers, the Skyhawks had one last chance to send the game into overtime. Freshman forward Brittni Moore got a shot off at the buzzer, but it was well short, giving Murray State the 76-73 win.
Looking at the final box score, UT Martin seemed like the victor. The Skyhawks had 32 points off of turnovers, 29 bench points to the Racers’ five, and turned 17 offensive rebounds into 14 second chance points.
Murray State had five bench points, in large part due to the workload the starters took on. Outside of sophomore forward Brianna Crane, every starter played at least 36 minutes. However, this turned into those four starters all reaching double figures.
“Thank God,” Griffith-Wallace said of the scoring load that the four starters picked up.
Turley led the way with 21 points, Griffith-Wallace followed with 19, Adebayo had 18 points and 12 rebounds for a program record 17th double-double and Mayes had 13.
“That is something I’ve been praying about immensely,” Turner said. “This basketball team plays defense. They are committed to the defensive end of the floor and rebounding the ball. We’ve just not been able to score the ball. I think I said Monday in my press conference, ‘we have to get four people in double figures to win these games,’ and tonight we were able to do that.”
The win marks the Racers first win against UT Martin since Jan. 5, 2013, and pushes the Racers to 7-8 in OVC play. With the rest of the results in the conference, Murray State is now in a four-way tie with SEMO, Jacksonville State and SIUE for sixth place in the OVC.
The Racers will look to break the tie with their upcoming matchup against SEMO at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23 at the CFSB Center.