RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky will look to extend its three-game home court winning streak when Murray State visits McBrayer Arena on Thursday. The game is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. The Racers (15-6, 9-4 OVC) are sitting fourth in the conference standings. The Lady Colonels (10-8, 5-6 OVC) have dropped to sixth in the league after losing its last two games against conference foes.

The game will be aired live on WEKY 1340 AM in the Richmond area and can be heard worldwide at EKUsports.com.

Eastern Kentucky has played well this season against the top teams in the OVC. The Lady Colonels are 1-3 against the top four in the standings, but two of the losses were overtime thrillers against Eastern Illinois. The other loss was by 11 on the road at Murray State, but EKU and the Racers were tied with 11:33 left in the game. The last time the Lady Colonels played at home, they beat Samford, now tied for second, to snap the Bulldogs’ six-game winning streak.

EKU leads the all-time series with Murray State 47-25, but the Racers have claimed victory in each of the last five meetings, including a 77-66 win in Murray earlier this season.

In its last game, Eastern Kentucky got off to a slow start against Tennessee Tech and lost its fourth straight road game, 77-64, on Saturday. Senior Ashley Cazee led the Lady Colonels with 14 points and seven rebounds.

Cazee is averaging 16.8 points, 4.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game over the last five contests. During that time she has made 50 percent of her shots from the field and reached the 20-point plateau twice. Her assists to turnover ratio is nearly 2-to-1.

EKU entered the game against Tech having shot 52 percent or better in each of its last three games and having made 52.5 percent of its three-pointers over the last four games. However, against TTU the Lady Colonels made just 21 of 58 shots from the field for 36.2 percent and went 5-of-19 from beyond the three-point arc for 26.3 percent.

Tennessee Tech had been held under 60 points in 11 of its 22 games and entered Saturday’s game averaging only 59.2 points per game. The Golden Eagles had 42 points at halftime.

The Lady Colonels started slow and found themselves in an early hole after Tech started hot. The Golden Eagles made nine of their first 16 shots from the field and led 19-4 after Tyler’s jumper with 12:36 remaining in the first half.

Eastern Kentucky made just two of its first 12 shot attempts and committed eight turnovers in the opening 11 minutes of the game.

Tech nailed a pair of three-pointers in the final 1:05 of the first half and took a 15-point lead, 42-27, into the locker room. Tennessee Tech scored eight of the first 10 points of the second half to extend its advantage to 21 points, 50-29.

Six straight points late in the game brought Eastern to within eight, but after Cazee’s two free throws capped the run and made it 70-62, only 52 seconds remained in the game. TTU made seven of eight free throws to secure the victory.

Murray State enters Thursday’s game having won six of their last seven.

On Saturday, six Racers reached double figures, including all five starters, in a 95-54 win over Jacksonville State. Ashley Hayes led the way with 25 points and added six rebounds. Amber Guffey made six of nine three-point attempts and finished with 20 points. Angela Brown scored 12 points and grabbed a dozen rebounds.

Murray State shot 55.2 percent from the field and 52 percent from behind the arc. MSU out-rebounded JSU 46-30.

For the season, Guffey and Hayes lead the team in scoring at 19.5 and 18.1 points per game, respectively. The two rank first and fourth in the conference in that category. Guffey is second in the OVC with an average of 4.71 assists per game. Hayes is third in the league with an average of 8.9 rebounds per game.

Hayes has earned OVC Player of the Week honors three times this season.

Under first-year head coach Jodi Adams, Murray State leads the conference in margin of victory (+9.9), free throw percentage (81.7), field goal percentage (44.4), assists (14.86) and assists to turnover ratio (1.08). The Racers are second in scoring (74.5) and third in field goal percentage defense (39.9).