THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Southern Illinois 74, Murray State 57
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 74, MURRAY STATE
57
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Murray
State women's basketball team dropped
a 74-57 decision to Southern Illinois at SIU
Arena in the Racers (8-12, 4-3 OVC) final regular-season non-conference game of
the 2011-12 campaign.
MSU was led
by red-shirt sophomore Erica Burgess who tallied 17 points and added six
rebounds. Senior Kayla Lowe was the only other Racer player in
double-digits, with 13 points and six boards.
The opening
of the first half was slow on scoring, with the teams scoring just 17 points
combined in the first six minutes. The Salukis held a small 9-8
advantage, but the Racers then went on a 7-0 run to push the lead out to six
(15-9) over the next three minutes. The teams traded baskets over the
next three minutes before the Salukis fought back to cut the lead to one (20-19).
The teams again traded baskets until 5:30 remained in the half. MSU then
pushed the tempo of the game again and used a 15-9 run over the final minutes
to take a 37-30 lead into the locker room.
The second
half was a different game, with SIU opening the stanza with a 14-2 run to take
a 44-39 advantage in the first 3:30. The Salukis continued to push the
tempo of the game and increased their lead to as many as 21 points on their way
to the victory.
The Salukis
ended up earning key advantages in shooting percentage after hitting 54 percent
of their shots in the second half. SIU ended the game with a 46 shooting
percentage to the Racers 33 percent.