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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.—Morehead State women’s basketball clinched at least second place in the Ohio Valley Conference race and Chynna Bozeman broke multiple 3-point records Saturday in a 65-50 win at Southeast Missouri.
The Eagles (19-8, 12-3 OVC) became the first-ever MSU women’s basketball team to finish better than third place. It also is the third-best MSU women’s basketball record in Division I play.
Bozeman, who hit five 3-pointers and led MSU with 18 points, broke her single-season 3-pointer mark and now has 96 triples, breaking the record set by current MSU graduate manager Tarah Combs and equaled by Bozeman last year. Bozeman also tied the OVC and MSU career record for 3-pointers with 248, also held by former Eagle standout Kandi Brown.
Tiffanie Stephens scored 16 points - on 5-for-8 from long range - and Tiffany Hamilton finished with 14 points. Ashley Martin had a career high 13 rebounds and Bozeman was one rebound shy of a double-double with nine. Bozeman also had four steals. Senior Connie Buchanan grabbed a career high nine rebounds as the Eagles and Redhawks each coralled 50 boards.
Morehead State opened the first half with a pair of three-pointers from Hamilton and Bozeman and had a 10-lead before SEMO registered its first points on a lay-up by Katie Norman. Patricia Mack followed with a quick jumper to cut the MSU lead to six, but from that point is was all Eagles. Morehead State went on a 19-1 tear, hitting four 3-pointers, two from Stephens, to shoot to a 29-5 lead with nine minutes to play in the half. The Redhawks shaved six points off of that lead, pulling to within 18, but MSU pushed it back to 24 on a pair of jumpers, one each from Martin and Hamilton.
“We came out played with lot of energy lot of effort, we were ready to go,” Morehead State coach Mike Bradbury said. “Our kids did a great job. We were really good in the first half. We wanted to knock them out in the first half and we did that.”
SEMO outscored the Eagles 34-25 in the second half, thanks in part to 23.1 percent shooting in the second half by MSU. The Redhawks were unable to get any closer than 15, the final margin.
“We lost our energy in the second half,” Bradbury said. “We had complete control of the game but we didn’t finish the way we want to. All of our guards played well, but we didn’t shoot it very well.”
Katie Norman had 19 for the Redhawks and Bailie Roberts had 10. Patricia Mack finished with 10 rebounds.
The Eagles attempted 46 three-pointers, just three shy of the school and OVC record this team set earlier in the 2009-10 season. MSU connected on 14 from distance.
The Eagles will be off for a week, hosting rival Eastern Kentucky next Saturday at 2:07 pm at Johnson Arena.
