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Game Notes

MURRAY, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will open Ohio Valley Conference play on Thursday against defending regular season champion Murray State. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET at the Regional Special Events Center.

The Lady Colonels (2-3) are coming off back-to-back victories. The Racers (4-2) have dropped two straight after opening the season with four consecutive wins.

Two Eastern Kentucky University women’s basketball players earned recognition from the Ohio Valley Conference on Monday. Alex Jones was the unanimous selection for OVC Freshman of the Week. Junior Talisha Davis earned OVC Newcomer of the Week honors. Both played key roles in wins over Towson and Bethune-Cookman at the Lady Pirate Invitational hosted this past weekend by East Carolina University.

Jones scored a career-best 26 points in EKU’s victory over Bethune-Cookman on Saturday. She kept the Lady Colonels in the game by scoring 21 points in the second half, including Eastern’s first 10 points of the second half and 12 of the team’s first 14. In addition to making 11 of her 14 attempts from the field, Jones also contributed eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. She turned the ball over only once in 35 minutes on the court. In a 54-50 win over Towson on Friday, Jones scored 12 points, grabbed five boards, had five steals, two assists and one block.

With Eastern trailing by two, Davis hit a three-pointer with nine seconds left, and then came up with a steal at the other end before Bethune-Cookman could get off a shot in the 66-65 Lady Colonel victory. The Indianapolis, Ind., native finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists while making 50 percent of her shots from the field. Davis had a game-best six assists to go along with four points, six rebounds and three steals against Towson.

Eastern picked up two wins last week due in large part to better offensive execution and fewer turnovers. EKU opened the season 0-3 and averaged 30.3 turnovers per game. In two straight wins last week, the Lady Colonels averaged 21 turnovers per game.

Eastern Kentucky has taken advantage of its trips to the free throw line this season. Its free throw percentage of 76.7 ranks 22nd in the nation. In their five games, the Lady Colonels have shot 80 percent from the charity stripe twice and 90 percent once.

Despite returning only one player that averaged more than 10 minutes per game for last season’s 23-9 team that captured the OVC regular season title, Murray State began the 2009-10 season with four straight wins.

The four starters lost from last season’s squad contributed 82 percent of the team’s scoring, 77 percent of its assists, 59 percent of its rebounds and 59 percent of its steals.

The Racers opened this season with wins over Alabama A&M, Memphis, Mid Continent and Evansville. The last two coming at home to extend MSU’s home court winning streak to 21 straight games. The streak is the fourth longest active run in the nation.

Senior guard Mallory Luckett is the lone returning starter. She leads the team with an average of nine rebounds and 6.8 assists per game. She is fourth in scoring at nine points per contest. Despite standing just 5-foot-6, Luckett grabbed 15 boards against Morgan State on Saturday.

After opening the season with four straight wins, Murray State dropped its last two, falling to Georgia State (87-72) and Morgan State (83-74). In their last three games, the Racers have allowed 82.3 points per game.

Scoring has not been a problem for MSU. The team is connecting on 42.7 percent of its shots and averaging 78.2 points per game this season. Five Racers average nine or more points and seven have scoring averages of 7.0 or higher.