Published: February 26, 2008 01:35 pm         

Outside shots fall for MSU

Morehead State snapped a seven-game losing streak by picking up a key Ohio Valley Conference win on Saturday at home over Tennessee Tech, 67-56. The Lady Eagles jumped out to a big first-half lead, but had to hold off the Golden Eagles’ late charge to earn the crucial victory in a battle of two teams fighting for a berth to the conference tournament.

“Defensively, we were tremendous,” said MSU head coach Mike Bradbury. “We rebounded the ball as good as we have all year. We played extremely hard. This is the way we hope to play. We shot it well. We really played well today.”

West Carter graduate Brandi Rayburn led the team with 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. Rayburn hit three of the team’s 11 3-pointers. As a team, the Lady Eagles finished 11-for-21 from 3-point range for 52.4 percent. Six of the eight MSU players who got into the game recorded at least one 3-pointer.

“In practice we work on those type of situations, the type of situations that we get in the game. So, it helps a lot when we come in to the game, because we do the same stuff in practice to help us get our feet ready to be ready to shoot,” Rayburn said. “That’s why our 3-point percentage is so tremendous right now.”

Tennessee Tech (8-21/7-12) hit the game’s first basket, but Morehead State (8-18/6-11) bounced back to tally the next seven points and take a 7-2 lead with 17:16 to play in the opening period. Over the next seven minutes, the hosts pushed their advantage up to 18 points (26-8).

The Golden Eagles scored eight straight points to whittle the margin down to 12 (28-16 with 6:46 remaining in the first half), but the Lady Eagles responded and pushed the margin back up to 18 by halftime (42-24).

Morehead State was 9-of-13 (69.2 percent) from behind the arc at intermission and also had an assist on each of its 14 baskets. Conversely, Tennessee Tech was just 2-of-10 from 3-point territory and shot just 28.6 percent from the field.

An Anitha Smith-Williams 3-pointer stretched the Lady Eagles’ margin to 20 points at the 16:44 mark of the second half. The lead eventually peaked at 22 (47-25) one minute and eight second later.

It was at that point when the visitors started to make their run. Over the next seven and a half minutes, Tennessee Tech scored 11 of the game’s next 12 points to cut the margin back down to 12 (48-36 with 8:05 to play).

Morehead State pushed the advantage back up to 18 points (57-39) at the 5:13 mark, but the visitors scored the next six points to trim the deficit back to 12.

However, the Golden Eagles could only get as close as 10 points the rest of the way (63-53 with 1:27 to play) and the Lady Eagles hung on for the 11-point win and their first season sweep over Tennessee Tech since 2002-03.

“We played good. The whole team played well. People off the bench played well. The starters played well. This was a team effort,” said Bradbury. “We had a great week of practice and it carried over and we had a great game today.”

As a team MSU shot 43.8 percent from the field and had 18 assists on 21 field goals. The Lady Eagles also won the rebounding battle, 47-38.

Smith-Williams and Chynna Bozeman joined Rayburn scoring in double figures. Smith-Williams had 11 points and four assists, while Bozeman added 10 points and four assists. Philnisha Lindsey also scored nine points. All eight Lady Eagles recorded at least four points.

Brittany Bass added seven rebounds; and Brittany Pittman registered six blocks, five rebounds and four assists.

Blair Bowens led Tennessee Tech with 17 points, six rebounds and four steals. Allison Price chipped in 12 points and four steals; while Meagan Lyons added eight points, five rebounds and three assists.

The Golden Eagles used their full-court press to create 17 steals and force 28 MSU turnovers, but shot just 25.0 percent from the field for the game.

“I think we just came out ready to play,” said Rayburn. “We just responded automatically. We stayed aggressive the whole game and played tremendously hard all game.”

Morehead State travels to Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game.