Women's Hoops Falls To Murray State, 68-56, In OVC Tournament Semifinals

March 7, 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Samford women's basketball team fell to Murray State, 68-56, in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Friday afternoon at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

"We are obviously disappointed to not be playing for the championship tomorrow," Samford head coach Mike Morris said. "We got beat by a very good team today. They played very well, and we kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the first 20 minutes."

Samford (23-9) senior guard Taryn Towns scored a career-high 19 points, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out five assists. Freshman Savannah Hill scored 14 points, and junior Chika Okoli added 13 points for the Bulldogs.

Murray State (23-7) was led by Amber Guffey with 17 points. Angela Brown scored 15 points and Ashley Hayes added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Lady Racers.

The teams were close through the early stages of the first half until, with Samford leading, 8-6, Murray State went on an 18-2 run to take a 24-10 lead with 7:09 to play in the first half.

The Lady Racers pushed their lead out to as much as 15 at 28-13 and 30-15, and MSU took a 36-21 lead into halftime.

Murray State pushed its lead out to 20 points at 49-29 with 15:20 to go in the game after a layup by Brown. With MSU leading, 53-33, Samford went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 11 at 53-42 with 7:25 to go after a jumper by Emily London.

Samford was able to cut the lead to nine at 58-49 and 60-51, but the Bulldogs could get no closer and the Lady Racers came away with the 68-56 win.

With the win, Murray State advances to Saturday's championship game where it will face Eastern Illinois at 11 a.m.