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CHARLESTON, Ill.—It was a record setting night for Morehead State women’s basketball at Eastern Illinois, but it wasn’t the result the Eagles wanted.
MSU fell 74-63 at league-leading EIU in a battle for first place as the OVC race enters its final two weeks. Morehead State sunk 11 3-pointers to set the OVC record for team triples in a single season with 269.
“We played hard enough to win, we just didn’t get it done,” MSU coach
Mike Bradbury said.
Morehead State, who needed a win or a Murray State loss to clinch a home game for the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, secured the home game because of a Murray State loss at Tennessee Tech.
Three Eagle players scored in double digits, led by #Chynna Bozeman’s
15 points on five made 3-pointers. Ashley Martin
scored 12 and Tiffanie Stephens
tallied 10 points. Deja Watson# grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.
“This is the best job we’ve done in executing our offense against EIU since I’ve been here,” Bradbury said.
Ta’Kenya Nixon had a triple-double for the Panthers, scoring 17 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Dominique Sims scored 15 points and Mariah King finished with 12 points for EIU.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on [Maggie] Kloak, but we had no answer for Nixon. She’s a great player,” Bradbury said.
Tied at 42 midway through the second half after a jumper by Watson, EIU went on an 11-1 run to open a 10-point lead, but a pair of free throws by Martin, a three by
Tiffany Hamilton and a
Tiffanie Stephens driving lay-up pulled MSU back within three. The Panthers opened the lead back to 10 points to hold off the charging Eagles.
“The turning point was about 11 or 12 minutes in the second half, they got a couple of rebounds and were able to stretch it out and we really never could get back into it fully,” Bradbury said.
Morehead State couldn’t buy a basket early in the game, falling behind 5-2 in the first four minutes, but Bozeman got hot from beyond the arc, drilling three quick 3-pointers to help jumpstart MSU to a 13-5 lead. EIU came charging back and pulled within one on a triple from Ashley Thomas. The Eagles responded with threes by Martin and Bozeman, who had 12 first-half points.
EIU shot 46.8 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc. The Panthers led a tight rebounding battle 45-40, but scored 40 points in the paint. MSU shot 31.9 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from long range.
The Panthers again came charging back on a 3-pointer from Kelsey Wyss and a driving lay-up by Mariah King to pull within two at 21-19. The teams traded buckets through the remainder of the half, leading to a 27-all tie at the intermission.
The Eagles fall to 18-8 overall and 11-3 in the OVC while Eastern Illinois improves to 17-8 overall and 11-3 in conference play. Morehead State heads to Southeast Missouri for a game Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
