Women’s basketball falters late in close loss to Murray State

All 12 of Southeast women’s basketball players who played put points on the board in a back-and-forth battle with Murray State on Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Show Me Center, but the group effort came up short in the face of Racers freshman guard Macey Turley.

Turley scored a career-high 32 points in leading the Racers (6-9 overall, 2-2 Ohio Valley Conference) to a 64-59 Ohio Conference victory.

In a game with 13 lead changes, the Redhawks (7-8 overall, 2-2 OVC) held their final lead at 39-38 with 3:18 remaining in the third quarter on a jump shot by sophomore guard Tesia Thompson. The game remained close for the remainder of the game as the largest lead Murray held in the fourth quarter was by eight points. With the score at 62-59 and 0:33 left in regulation, Thompson was charged with a technical foul. Turley hit two free throws for the game’s final points.

Thompson did not score in the first half before ending the game as the Redhawks leading scorer with 13 points along with four assists, one steal and four rebounds. Three of her rebounds were on the offensive glass.

Junior guard Iyanna McCurdy led Southeast at halftime with eight points but did not score again for the remainder of the game.

Turley was hot hot from the start, hitting her first five shots from the field. By the end of the game, she had connected all three of her 3-point attempts and 11 of 12 free throws. Redshirt-junior guard Evelyn Adebayo had her eighth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore forward Brianna Crane and freshman guard Lex Mayes also did well at the glass, grabbing nine and seven rebounds, respectively.

Southeast fell behind 28-16 after a six-minute scoring drought, but went on a 7-0 run and eventually tightened the score to 30-25 heading into the halftime break.

Southeast improved its ball handling and only turned the ball over once in the first quarter. It ended the game with eight turnovers, significantly lower than their 19.6 turnover average. Murray State had 16 turnovers, lower than their season average of 17.6.

The Redhawks outscored the Racers in the paint 24-10.

Murray State outrebounded Southeast 37-33. All of the Racers points came from the starters, as all five scored. Southeast had 26 points from the bench players.

Southeast will hit the road this weekend to face Morehead State at 4:05 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, and Eastern Kentucky at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19.