It has been a long time since the last time I blogged and a
lot has happened since then.We played
in the OVC tournament last week.It did
not go as we planned because we ended up losing to Austin Peay in the
semi-finals.Austin Peay played a great
game and they deserved to win.Our team
was just not as sharp as Austin Peay was for 40 minutes.We are disappointed that we did not win the
OVC tournament championship, but we still realize that we were the best team in
the OVC during the regular season.
We will not participate in the NCAA tournament, but we will
play in the WNIT.Our team is playing in
the postseason for the third straight year.We found out last night that our first round opponent in the WNIT is
Arkansas-Little-Rock.They participate
in the Sun-Belt conference and they had a good season.They are a good team and we will have to be
ready to play in order to be competitive.
This has been a great season for our team.We are disappointed that we are not playing
in the NCAA tournament, but we appreciate the opportunity that we have been
given to play in the WNIT.Our team has
had some ups and downs throughout this year.When we all take time and reflect on this season I believe that we all
will appreciate what a special season we had this year.I know that I will appreciate all of the
teammates and coaches that I have had over the years because each one of them
has helped me in some way.
This week is going to be a big weekend for the Racers.We have a chance to win the team's first Ohio
Valley Conference regular-season title if we win our final two games of the
season.We will be playing Morehead
State first, Thursday, and then Eastern Kentucky, Saturday.Morehead is one of the two teams that we have
lost to this season during conference action, but the loss came early in the
season when we still weren't playing at our best.We are optimistic about our chances this
week.When we played Morehead early in
the year we were a different team.Now
the team has bonded more and we all know our roles better.
The upperclassmen know what to expect this weekend, pressure wise
since we have been in the same situation before.The last two seasons we have ended the year
in second place and two years ago we lost the final regular-season game by two
points to take the title away from us.The underclassmen don't know what that feeling is yet so this situation
will be new to them.
We have five seniors this year and this season has meant a lot to
all of us.Winning the OVC Tournament
last year was a big stepping stone for us, so this season we felt like we had
to play just as well to prove ourselves.I think that is what we have done - we have proven that Murray State is
a dominate team and they come to compete every time that we step on the court.
The excitement for the week hasn't just been on the court.On Monday the team and the Guffey sisters
were surprised with some of the highest honors that a Racer women's basketball
player has earned.During half time of
the men's game, after our win over UT Martin, it was announced that both Amber
and Paige had earned Academic All-America First Team honors and that Amber had
been named the Academic All-America of the Year for women's basketball.
Both Amber and Paige have worked hard both on and off the court
throughout their careers at Murray State.These awards are not only great recognition for them, but it helps show
the freshman that you can not only be a great athlete on the court, but you can
excel in the classroom as well. The underclassmen are already doing great jobs
in the classroom, so this will help encourage them to keep that up through
their career's here at Murray State.
Yesterday we played SoutheastMissouriState and lost for the
first time in 11 games.We played really
bad and SEMO took advantage of that.This is only our second conference loss and we are still tied for first
place in the conference.This loss could
help us in the long run because we now know that we have to be ready to play
every game.If we are not ready to play,
then the other team will take advantage of that because the other team will be
ready to play.
We play Eastern Illinois on
Saturday.This is a crucial game for the
simple fact that Eastern Illinois and our team
are tied for first in the conference.Whichever team wins this game will take sole possession of first
place.Eastern
Illinois is a good team and we have to be ready to play from the
start.If we are not ready then we will
get beat.I think our team has learned
from our last loss and I think we will be ready on Saturday.
Next week we have a busy week.It is the last week of the regular season
and we have three games.Our last three
opponents are UT-Martin, MoreheadState, and Eastern Kentucky.We need to come out ready to play because all
three of these teams will be ready.MoreheadState
and Eastern Kentucky are still trying to
improve their seed for the tournament.When we play Eastern Kentucky it is our
senior night.It will be the last
regular season game that I will ever play at the RSEC.It will be sad because it will be the last
time that our five seniors will play at the RSEC during the regular
season.Nevertheless, we are looking
forward to playing in the OVC tournament.
Last week I got a lot of media attention because I set the
school record with 46 points scored in a single game, but there were several
other players that performed just as well and helped me break the record.Without the assists from players like Amber and
Paige Guffey and the play of everyone on the court I would not have been able
to accomplish what I did.
Amber's performance means a lot to the team.She
scored 51 points in two games, added13 rebounds, and dished out 17
assists.The things that she does with
the ball, like drawing people to her to get the ball back out to the open
person it amazing.She makes the defense
be honest.When she is penetrating they
have to make a choice.Most of the time
she will draw two or three people and that leaves me and Angela Mullins open to
hit our shots.
Angela has also been doing a great job this season.She has gained a lot more confidence and is consistently
hitting her shot around the free-throw line.She is proving that if there is something you do well and work on it a little
more there is nothing that anyone can do to stop you.Everyone on the team has been stepping into
their roles and improving with each game.
Earlier in the season we really relied on Amber, Paige, and me
to score a lot.Now we are getting more
penetration and drawing the extra defender and are able to get it to the open
player and getting more scoring from the rest of the team.
No matter who has the most points on the scoreboard there
are many other people that are getting the assists and screening to help that
person get those points. Those are the most important stats and unfortunately they
go unnoticed. Most people don't think about those things but that is a huge
part of the game
My 46 points were not because of what I did, it was a team
effort - I could not have done it alone.
Things like the ice storm that affected the area really
bring a team together and I think that helped us refocus for last week's
games.As a team we had a good bond
before the storm, but the storm made us want to win more because if we didn't people
would say it was because the storm took it out of our rhythm.It wouldn't be the team it would be the storm.It took dedication from the team to stick
around and do what we could to stay focused.
It was a big motivator and a challenge.Are we going to lose, or are we going to keep
on the path we were on before the storm.Everyone responded well and we are continuing to perform like we know we
can.
This past week we played two
games.Our first opponent was Tennessee
State.They have a good team and they
played really well.We came out a little
flat in this game, but we eventually adjusted and started to play better.This game was all about offense.Each team scored over 90 points, with TSU
scoring 58 in the second half and us scoring 59 in the second half.Our defense was not up to par, but we will
improve it in these last conference games.
The story of this game was my
fellow senior Ashley Hayes, who scored 46 points.She was just amazing and could not be
stopped. In fact she set the MurrayState's
individual game scoring record. I think that this is the best individual
performance by a teammate that I have been a part of.We won the game by four points.
Our next opponent was Austin
Peay.This was a huge game for the fact that
Austin Peay was in third place in the standings and were looking to get closer
to our team.Austin Peay was ready to
play this game and they played really well in the first half.We did not play as well as we could have in
the first half, but you have to give Austin Peay credit for that.We came out firing on all cylinders in the
second half and we shot 70% from the field in the second half.Ashley played great once again.She followed up her 46 point performance with
a 36 point performance.Ashley's
performance this week is probably one of the best throughout the nation.She averaged 41 points, 9 rebounds, shot
28/43 from the field, 10/17 from the 3-pt. line, and 16/16 from the free throw
line.
We have been playing well lately
and are looking to continue that this upcoming week.We play Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State
this week.Both of these teams can be
dangerous and are capable of beating us.We have to be ready to play and learn from the last time we played these
two teams.
Since the
last blog, a lot has happened to our team.Last week we experienced something that most teams do not experience -an
ice storm in Murray.That is not even
the bad thing.We lost power and did not
have it for three days.We had no water
or electricity.The first day that the
power went out, our team stayed at the RSEC (this is where we play our home
games).Surprisingly, the RSEC was warm
and it had some lights.I enjoyed
staying at the RSEC because that meant we could shoot anytime we wanted.
On the
second day without power our team traveled to Martin, Tenn.As we are traveling we could see all of the
ice on the branches and power lines.There were branches on the road that we were driving on so the roads
were dangerous.Our coaches and a couple
of players on our team drove their vehicles and everybody rode with them.Coach Cross was in the front and everybody
was following him.On the way to Martin,
we almost had a collision with each other.I think we were going a little too fast for the road conditions.There was a branch on the road and it caused
someone to put on their brakes really hard.Then everybody else had to put their brakes on hard.We had two cars that wound up in the ditch
and we could not get them out.Jana, who
lives close to Martin, had some of her family come and pull the cars out of the
ditch.Thankfully no one was hurt in
this accident.
After the
little mishap, we continued on to Martin.We were thankful to be staying at a place with heat and a place that had
warm water.Another reason we went to
Martin was so that we could practice at UT-Martin.We are in the middle of our conference season
and had to practice somewhere.We really
appreciate UT-Martin letting us practice in their gym.They did not have to do that, but they knew
that we were in a bad situation and wanted to help us.
We take for
granted a lot of things that we have (water, heat, lights).This ice storm made me realize that I am
really blessed and I really do have a lot of things.This situation will make us stop and think
about things before we start complaining about a little discomfort we may
experience.There are still some people
in Calloway County and the surrounding counties that still do not have
power.Some people are not expected to
get their power back until the end of February.As you can see, our team really did not have it that bad compared to a
lot of other people.
This past week has been a good week for our team.We won both of our games at home.The first game of the week we faced Eastern
Illinois.This was not just another game
in our conference.First place was on
the line.We came out a little slow to
start the game, but we got it going and ended up winning by nine points.Mallory Luckett and Angela Mullins had good
games for our team, each scoring career or season highs.The only thing that we did not do well in
this game was we missed some easy layups.
Our next game was against SoutheastMissouriState.They are the defending regular season champs
of our conference.We knew coming into
this game that we would have to be ready to play because they are a great road
team.They came into the game with a
16-game road conference winning streak.We
started out the game great and went up by double digits at one point.Then we let them back in the game and were
down by seven points at halftime.We
started the second half like we ended the first half and saw ourselves down by
double digits at the beginning of the half.After the slow start, we came back and played well and ended up winning
the game by 15 points.
Now we get to rest a little bit before our next game against
UT Martin.They have struggled a little
bit this season, but we know that we have to be prepared for them because they
are the type of team that can beat you if you are not ready.
The last week has been good for the MurrayState
women's basketball team.We were able to
earn two victories at home against two tough teams.We first played TennesseeState
and knew that we would have to come out on the floor ready to play from the
opening tip-off.
Last year when they came to Murray
we didn't come out ready to play and TennesseeState got up on us
early.We fought back and scored 40
points to tie the game, but it wasn't enough.We used that memory to prepare ourselves and came out ready to battle.
It was a quick turn around then to face Austin Peay on
Saturday who has the best turn around in the conference this season.They came into the game on a winning streak
and we wanted to make sure that we took that momentum away from them.So we came out strong and were able to win by
10.
The game against JacksonvilleState was a good road
win, we just need to make sure we are playing the whole game both offensively and
defensively.If we continue to play on
both ends of the court like we know we can we should be alright the rest of the
season.
So now we are in a tie for first in the Ohio Valley
Conference standings, which is great.But as a team we know that anything can happen since there is so much of
the season left to play.We have to make
sure that we are ready to play each night so we don't end up with the short end
of the stick.
Tomorrow we get to play on ESPNU against Tennessee
Tech.Tech is a very tough team to play
in their gym so it should be a good game to watch.We are planning on treating this game like
any other game.We have to play Racer
basketball no matter if the game will be aired on national TV.
Well, it has
been awhile since my last blog.We have
played several games and we have been really busy.Right before Christmas, we played at Miami
(Ohio).They ended up beating us by four
points.It was disappointing to lose our
last game before Christmas break, but we did get to go home for about five
days.I went to my Granny's house for a
couple of days and ate her wonderful food.After the Christmas break, our team came back and started practice
again.The first couple of practices
after Christmas are sort of tough because you are off for an extended
time.Of course, the people on our team
work out during the Christmas break so it is not as bad as it could be. ;)
Now we are
starting the conference portion of our schedule.We played UT Martin on January 5th
at their place.It was an exciting game
to say the least.We lead throughout the
game by double digits, but UT Martin made a run at the end of the game to make
it close.The game was tied with about
5.6 seconds left on the clock.Our coach
called a timeout and he drew up a play for us to run.Basically what happened was the ball was
inbounded to Jana Roney and she took a couple of dribbles and then passed me
the ball.I dribbled down the court and
took a three-point shot.I missed it and
Ashley Hayes got the rebound and put the ball in the basket with 0.1 seconds
left on the clock.The refs first waived
off the shot, but then they looked at the replay and said it was good.I am glad that our conference has replay
because if we did not then we would have gone into overtime and who knows what
would have happened.
We continue
this busy week with two more games.We
will play Tennessee State University on Thursday and Austin Peay on
Saturday.Both of these teams are
playing really well right now, so we will have to be ready to play.
Go Racers!
P.S. Sorry to our readers. The site hosting this blog went down during the month of December and we lost a few entries and pictures.
Let me first
say that our team is thankful to be back in Murray, Kentucky where we can
actually breathe normally on the basketball court.It was hard to breathe on the basketball
court at Colorado State because of the altitude.Nevertheless, we came away with a win against
Colorado State during the final game of the tournament.We struggled in the first half and could not
really get anything going offensively.We came out a little sluggish in the second half, but then got it going
late in the game.We beat Colorado State
by five points.Some of my teammates had
really good games.Kayla Lowe came in
the game and provided us with some much needed offense and ended up scoring eight
points.Paige, my twin sister, played
really well in the second half and scored 14 points in the game and hit all
nine of her free throws.Mallory Luckett
also made some key baskets down the stretch and was our leading rebounder with
six (and yes, she is a guard).This was
a very good win for our team because it was a total team effort.
The only bad
thing about traveling to Colorado was the long trip.I am not a big fan of flying because I do not
like the hassle (checking in bags, going through security, walking a mile to
get to where you're going).Other than
that, flying is fine.The great part
about flying is you get a snack and complimentary drink :).At least you know you will not starve while
flying.This will be our last trip where
we fly because we will drive to the rest of our games.Overall, I would say that our team had a good
trip to Colorado and we learned a lot about our team from this tournament.
Now, our
team is focused on our first two conference opponents which are EKU and
Morehead State.We just got back from
Colorado on Sunday and are going to be heading out to Richmond, Kentucky on
Wednesday.These games are very
important and we need to be focused from the beginning.We want to start out the OVC schedule on a
positive note.In order to do that, we
have to be focused and stay together.
Ashley Hayes
Senior G/F, Murray State
The OVC Player of the Year and an All-OVC First Team and All-Tournament Team member, Ashley scored her 1,000th career point Jan. 24, 2008 against Tennesse Tech. She led the Racers and was second in the OVC wtih 18.4 points per game for the 2007-08 season and garnered a team-high 270 rebounds. In addition, she named OVC Player of the Week four times.
Amber Guffey
Senior G, Murray State
Amber was named All-OVC First Team and OVC Tournament MVP in 2007-08, when she became a member of the 1,000 Point Club at MSU. During the season, she set school records for free throws in a game and in a season and three-point field goals in a season. She is ranked No. 1 on MSU’s three-point field goals and free-throw percentage charts and second in three-point field-goal percentage. (.406) and is the first MSU player to record 300 career free throws and 300 career assists. Amber was named to the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and earned the Medal of Honor for the second-consecutive season. Her twin sister, Paige, is a teammate on the Racers.
