BOX SCORE
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Morehead State women’s basketball survived a furious second half rally by host SIU Edwardsville and came up with three clutch steals and baskets late to hold on to defeat the Cougars 69-62 in a non-conference game Sunday at the Vadalabene Center.
Senior
Chynna Bozeman led the Eagles with 22 points, hitting 11-of-14 free throws, while junior
Courtney Lumpkin tallied 18 points playing the full 40 minutes.
Ashar Harris and
Linda Dixon each had 10 points. Harris had nine of the Eagles’ 38 rebounds.
The Eagles are now 7-3 on the year, the third straight season MSU has started 7-3. SIUE fell to 2-8.
“We talked about it coming over here. You win road games on the free throw line and in the paint. I thought that was exactly what we did tonight. Three huge defensive plays when the game was tied late was absolutely incredible. I thought Courtney Lumpkin played really, really resilient tonight, and we had some humongous plays by a lot of players today,” said coach Tom Hodges.
In the first half, MSU trailed 14-11 after a Melia Duncan trey with 13:51 left in the first half, but the Eagles answered with a Lumpkin triple to tie it, and then MSU went on top 16-14 – a lead it never relinquished in the opening 20-minute period.
The Cougars climbed back to within 31-28 at the 3:08 mark, but three-pointers by Allie Turner and Lumpkin sparked an 8-2 run to end the half. Bozeman added a pair of free throws to give the visiting Eagles their largest first half lead, 39-28, with 40 ticks remaining. SIUE got a bucket from Raven Berry in the final 20 seconds to set the halftime score at 39-30 in favor of MSU.
The Eagles forced 11 first-half mistakes by SIUE and shot a perfect 12-of-12 from the free throw line. The Eagles also hit five three-pointers and shot 40 percent.
Neither team was able to muster much offensively in the final 20 minutes. The Cougars opened the second half on an 11-2 run to rally back and tie the contest at 41. Bozeman finally nailed a jumper at the 12:05 mark to stop the run. The Cougars, who had not held a lead since 13:51 in the first half, tied the game again at 48 with 5:44 left.
Lumpkin hit a turnaround jumper with 4:02 left to finally get the Eagles into double digits in the scoring column in the second half. It gave MSU a 50-48 lead. With MSU ahead 51-50, the Eagles began a spurt where they came up with three consecutive steals as they pushed ahead 58-50, but the host Panthers crept back into it at 61-57. MSU sealed the win at the charity stripe where it hit six tosses in the final minute.
Berry topped the Cougars with a 19-point, 15-rebound double-double.
The Eagles finished shooting the ball 36 percent (18-of-50), but they forced 20 total Cougar turnovers and made nine steals. MSU was also 28-of-39 at the free throw line.
The Eagles will get back to OVC play next Sunday, Dec. 19 at Tennessee State. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. EST.
