Jakob Milani
Staff Writer
jmilani@murraystate.edu
A late game comeback was not enough to help the Racers as the Murray State women’s basketball team lost to the Belmont Bruins 66-54 on Saturday, Jan. 30.
The Racers got out to a quick lead just 21 seconds into the game thanks to a three-pointer from freshman guard Bria Sander-Woods. Both teams went back-and-forth after that, with neither team willing to give up a run. The Racers suffered a scoring drought for the last 4:10 of the quarter, which allowed Belmont to go on a 7-0 run. Going into the second quarter, the Bruins led the Racers 16-10.
The Bruins dominated the Racers in the second quarter. The Bruins continued their run, scoring the first eight points in the quarter. Belmont allowed just three made shots from the Racers, and made seven of its 13 shot attempts. The Bruins scored 18 points in the quarter while the Racers scored eight points. Belmont led Murray State 34-18 at halftime.
The Racers shot 7-23 in the first half compared to the Bruins’ 14-29. The Bruins forced 13 turnovers in the half while only turning the ball over eight times. Belmont also scored 20 points in the paint in the first half, while the Racers made just eight.
In the third quarter, the Racers started to make a comeback. After being down by as much as 17 early in the quarter, the Racers slowly climbed back into the game and scored 23 points in the quarter, while the Bruins scored 13 points. Belmont didn’t make a single free throw in the last 4:22 of the quarter, which helped the Racers go on a 6-0 run over the final 1:23. Heading into the fourth quarter, Belmont was up 47-41.
Belmont managed to shut down Murray State’s comeback in the fourth quarter. The Bruins allowed just six points from the Racers in the first five minutes of the quarter, and just 13 points in the quarter as a whole. The Bruins scored 19 points in the quarter, the most Belmont scored in the game. The Racers failed to make any comeback and the Bruins walked away victorious, beating the Racers by a score of 66-54.
Freshman forward Hannah McKay finished the game as the leading scorer for the Racers with 12 points on 5-6 shooting and eight rebounds. She spoke postgame about the Racers’ game plan for the second half after a rough first half.
“Basically just go out there and try our hardest,” McKay said. “(Coach) just said we were gonna go out there and pressure them and try to come back.”
McKay was the leading scorer for the Racers for the second straight game. She talked about how she’s been improving since her injury earlier in the season.
“A few games I was just going through a little slump and I was like ‘I gotta get out of this,’ so I’ve been trying to work and get out of that,” McKay said. “My main thing coming off the bench is just going in and trying as hard as I can and doing whatever I can to help my teammates.”
Head Coach Rechelle Turner talked post-game about the Racers’ attempt at a comeback, saying the team put themselves in a bad position to win the game.
“I think we went close to 10 minutes without scoring, and I’m not 100% sure that I’ve ever been a part of that,” Turner said. “Those are the things that we do that basically put ourselves in such a terrible position to win games. You have to be able to sustain runs from other teams when you go on a drought, but you have to be able to find an easy way to score the basketball or get to the foul line in a 10 minute stretch. The group that played the last quarter and half I thought had tremendous effort and tremendous grit and gave us an opportunity to come back in the game.”
Turner also talked about the adjustments the team made at halftime, saying the team looked at Belmont’s defense and tried to find a way to break it.
“Specifically, we looked at the way they were going about their zone,” Turner said. “They were doubling Macey out of the zone every time she touched the basketball, so we knew we had to get the ball inside the paint area and work inside out so we made some adjustments on switching up who was at the high post and who was low, kinda exed out our post players which allowed us to get some inside out… We had opportunities, especially when we were making our run, that we didn’t get the ball inside out. We had really good looks from three and didn’t make them.”
Murray State drops back below .500 to an 8-9 record and 5-7 in conference play. The Racers travel to Morehead, Kentucky, on Thursday, Feb. 4, to take on Morehead State at 3 p.m.