Murray State in WNIT ; Southern Miss finds offense in OT to oust Racer women

And Saturday night, in a heated affair in the second round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, her Racers were engaged with host Southern Mississippi in a matchup where both teams were having a very hard time scoring points. As always seems to happen, though, one of the teams finally did go on a big scoring spurt.

The problem for Turner and her team was it was the Golden Eagles that did it, outscoring Murray State, 13-2, in overtime to win by a 78-67 final score that ended the Racers’ season at 20-12, while Southern Miss advanced to the round of 16 at 20-13.

“We just couldn’t make shots,” said Turner, whose team was 0-for-5 in the extra period, while the Golden Eagles were 4-for-8 after both teams shot about 36% in the first four quarters. Finding the bottom of the basket most was Southern Miss’ best player, guard Dominque Davis, who scored seven of her game-high 32 points in the extra period.

“She’s an outstanding player that can create her own shot and she’s made big shots throughout this year,” Turner said.

Her most damaging shot, though, also goes along with the idea that, sometimes, good defense is not enough to prevent a score. It came with about two minutes left as she launched what amounted to a prayer from 28 feet to beat the shot clock. It swished through the net to push Southern Miss to a 72-65 lead. Two Destiny Thomas free throws cut the lead to five points, but the Racers could pull no closer the rest of the game.

This was a much different story than the rest of the game, where the Racers led much of the way, starting with a 10-2 spurt to open the night. Southern Miss closed that gap to 33-32 by halftime, but there were trends that appeared quite favorable for the Racers, at that point, especially with rebounding.

In the first half, Murray State owned the boards — 27-16 overall, including a 9-2 edge in second-chance points. That ended in the second half, where Southern Miss tilted this trend, losing the overall battle by only a 51-50 count, but won second-chance points by a 17-13 margin.

“There were a lot of things that happened, but it seemed like they were getting every single rebound, and they came up with some really big offensive rebounds,” said Turner, whose team also came up short in an area where it has thrived all season, free throws. The Racers were only 16-for-24 Saturday, missing several in key points of the game, where they could have grown a slim fourth-quarter lead at a time Southern Miss was still struggling from the field.

Southern Miss, meanwhile, was going 19-for-23, yet the Racers still had the chance to win it in the final second. However, guard Bria Sanders-Woods, who hit two crucial 3-pointers in the third quarter that helped the Racers take a 53-51 lead to the fourth quarter, came up empty on two shots at the foul line with 0.9 seconds left in regulation. She got that chance after drawing a foul on an aggressive drive to the basket.

However, Turner was quick to point out that this was a team-wide problem.

“We’ve been such a good free-throw team all year (tops in the Missouri Valley Conference, as a matter of fact, at 79.3% as a team). We just weren’t making them the way we usually do tonight,” she said. 

Overshadowed by the loss was major history being made for the Murray State program. Before Saturday, many observers believed the career scoring mark of 2,287 points that Racer legend Sheila Smith established in the late 1980s was unreachable … until forward Katelyn Young hit her first shot of the night, a short banker that gave the southpaw 2,289 points and sole possession of the top spot.

It was the start of a monster night for the senior from Oakwood, Illinois, who almost certainly will be a Murray State Hall of Famer. She scored 26 points, but her 11 rebounds not only gave her another double-double in her illustrious career, it put her in a class by herself as the only Murray State women’s player to score at least 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in a career.

Only one player — male or female — in the long history of Murray State basketball had achieved that until Saturday — Racer men’s legend Popeye Jones.

“When the only other player to have done that is Popeye Jones? That’s some amazing company to be in right there,” Turner said of Young, who still has a year of eligibility remaining, courtesy of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It is not known what Young will decide to do for next season.

In an interview with Voice of the Racers Jeremy Rose on WBZB-104.5 after Saturday’s game, Young talked about the past four seasons, particularly her time with her five classmates — Sanders-Woods, forward Hannah McKay (who had to miss Saturday’s game with an injury sustained last week in The Valley Championship at Moline, Illinois), forward Charlee Settle (unable to play this season due to an ongoing health issue) and center Lucia Operto (unable to play the final three months due to an injury). 

“I’m just so proud of every single one of them and so proud of how far we’ve come, and we believe we’ve built a culture here and I’m so proud of that. The younger girls can now carry that on,” Young said, becoming emotional as she made her comments. That group also includes junior guard Cayson Conner, who started the past two seasons but has decided to forgo her senior season so she can focus all of her efforts on pursuing a dental career.

She also talked about she and her teammates adopted Turner’s idea to abruptly go from a half-court, structured team offensively to one that sought to make games much faster in pace this season, something that took a tremendous adjustment. It was an adjustment they did make, becoming the top-scoring team in The Valley and fifth-highest scoring team in the country, trading the national lead with none other than defending national champion Louisiana State for the first two months of the season.

“We came into this season, all of us, and just bought into the system and that made a huge difference. I’m just so proud of everyone, honestly, for the season we had and how we turned everything around.”

Forward Ava Learn had 18 points and six boards for the Racers Saturday and was the only other Murray State player to score in double figures.

The Racers end having won five more games overall than last year (15-16) and making a five-win improvement in Valley play (going from 7-13 to 12-8 this season).