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NASHVILLE, Tenn.—When times are tough, basketball coaches look to their veterans for help.
Morehead State women’s basketball coach Tom Hodges was glad Sunday he had all four of his veterans.
Morehead State remained perfect in OVC play at 3-0 and improved 8-3 overall and TSU fell to 0-3 in the OVC and 3-8 overall.
“I felt like the first 10 minutes we played exactly the way we wanted to. We were playing transition basketball and we were executing,” said coach Tom Hodges. “But, I felt like TSU raised their aggression level after that, and up until about six minutes to play, we had to fight to raise our aggression level. From that point on, I was extremely proud of our team. I thought we executed perfectly what we needed them to do and I was so proud of their resolve. I told the team the heart of a champion willed us to win.”
Down eight with 6:24 to play, Dixon swished a 3-pointer that started an 8-2 Eagle rally over the next four minutes that was capped by a Bozeman 3-pointer. That triple gave MSU its first lead of the second half.
Dixon then pulled down a big rebound following a missed 3-pointer and dumped the ball off to Harris, who scored a layup that gave the Eagles’ the lead for good. Dixon came up big again at the other end of the court, getting a steal that led to a pair of free throws by Lumpkin that sealed the win.
MSU placed four players in double figures, led by Lumpkin’s 23. Harris had a 12-point, 13-rebounds double-double and Bozeman, who had trouble scoring in the first half, finished with 11 points. She also had five steals. Dixon added 10 points. Lumpkin had the career day despite playing with four fouls for most of the second half. Lumpkin, along with Channing Hillman and Jayne Cox each had four fouls by the 12-minute mark of the second half.
Morehead State came out on fire, running out to a 13-4 lead in the first seven minutes after TSU scored four of the first six points. Five different players scored for the Eagles during that stretch. The teams traded buckets until the 9:13 mark when Lumpkin scored on a layup that gave the visiting team a 10-point lead.
Lumpkin’s basket was MSU’s last field goal for the next eight minutes and the Lady Tigers took advantage, scoring 12 unanswered points to take a two-point lead on a free throw by Tayla Foster. Lumpkin broke the drought with a jumper at 1:22, tying the game at 26, but that basket was MSU’s final of the half and TSU took a 29-26 lead into halftime.
The Lady Tigers scored coming out of halftime to extend the lead to five, but a Bozeman traditional 3-point play and a coast-to-coast driving layup by Lumpkin tied the game.
Meredith Stafford led TSU with 19 points and Destiney Gaston scored 14 points. Simone Hopes added 11 points and had a team-high six rebounds.
The Eagles travel to Austin Peay to face the defending OVC champion Lady Govs on Tuesday. Tip-off is set for 6:15 p.m. Eastern.
