BOX SCORE | BOX SCORE (PDF)
MARTIN, Tenn.—UT Martin won the battle for second place, defeating Morehead State women’s basketball 88-69 Saturday afternoon at the Elam Center.
The loss drops MSU (20-9/13-5 OVC) into the third seed for the 2011 OVC Tournament, and the Eagles play the winner of the game between sixth-seeded Jacksonville State and seventh-seeded Tennessee State, Thursday at 3 p.m. EST at Municipal Auditorium.
Chynna Bozeman and Jasmine Newsome went shot-for-shot as both eclipsed the 30-point plateau. Bozeman’s team high 32 points, 24 coming on eight made treys, also tied her with Donna Murphy for the most 30-point games in school history with eight. Newsome finished with 33.
Ashar Harris turned in her 20th double-double this year with 18 points and 15 rebounds. But, MSU was outscored 23-3 at the free throw line. MSU was whistled for 26 fouls to UTM’s 11. At the end of the first half, the Eagles had 13 fouls and UTM (19-10/14-4 OVC) had only four.
Morehead State took a quick lead in a frenetic first half, taking a six-point lead before four minutes had passed on a layup by Harris. Bozeman swished four first-half triples to counter a pair of Skyhawk threes that UTM used to cut the six point lead in half on two different occasions. The Eagle lead got up to eight, again on a Harris layup.
A layup by Newsome, a triple by Aubrey Reedy and a pair of free throws by Butler quickly erased the MSU eight-point advantage. The Eagles surged again and got the lead to nine on a Bozeman jumper. This time, the Skyhawks chipped away at the lead, scoring the final six points of the half to pull within three, 39-36, on a Glenn layup heading into intermission.
UTM scored the first seven points of the second half and got the lead as high as 15 before Bozeman got hot. Bozeman scored 11 straight MSU points to pull the Eagles within striking distance. The Eagles got the deficit as low as 61-55, but UTM used free throws late to pull away.
The Skyhawks outscored the Eagles 52-30 in the second half, hitting eight three-pointers. MSU finished 10-of-37 from the three-point arc.
The game marked the final regular season game for the Eagles.
