Click here listen to the game live.
Click here for live stats.

Game Notes

MURRAY, Ky. – The situation is simple, the task may not be. If Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team wins on Saturday, the Lady Colonels will earn a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. However, to make it to the tournament EKU will have to beat Murray State, the team that has already claimed the 2009 OVC regular season title.

Tip-off in Murray, Ky., is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. ET. The game will be aired live on WEKY 1340 AM in the Richmond area and can be heard worldwide at EKUsports.com.

The Lady Colonels (7-19, 4-13 OVC) are currently tied with Jacksonville State for the eighth and final spot in the league tournament. If both teams lose on Saturday, the Gamecocks will have the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of their win over Austin Peay. If both teams win, Eastern will have the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of its win over the Racers (20-7, 15-2 OVC). JSU will host seventh place Tennessee Tech on Saturday.

Ironically, the team that earns the eighth seed must return to face Murray State on Tuesday in the first round of the conference tournament. MSU locked up at least a share of its first-ever OVC regular season title by beating Morehead State on Thursday. The Racers have clinched the No. 1 seed for the tournament.

In their last game, senior Ilona Muszak hit a three-pointer with 1.4 seconds left to give the Lady Colonels a 63-60 win over Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night. With the win, Eastern snapped an 11-game losing skid.

Sophomore Cherie White led EKU with 14 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Kayla Drake finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four steals. Sophomore Laura Becerra handed out a career-best nine assists and finished with six points.

After an EKU time out, Muszak came off a screen to get the inbound pass and found the bottom of the net from the right corner.

Eastern Kentucky leads the all-time series with Murray State, 48-26. The last meeting came on Dec. 4, 2008, with MSU winning 73-61 in Richmond. The Lady Colonels have a 23-13 advantage in games played in Murray but the Racers have won six of the last seven overall between the two teams.

In the first meeting this season, Eastern Kentucky trailed by 16 points in the first half and 12 points early in the second half, but closed the deficit to two with just over five minutes remaining before falling to the Racers at McBrayer Arena. Sophomore Nadia Mossong led the Lady Colonels with 21 points. Ashley Hayes scored a game-high 25 points for MSU.

Murray State has won three straight and 14 of its last 15 games. The only setback during that time came at Southeast Missouri by a score of 69-51.

The Racers are led by a trio of seniors. Ashley Hayes averages 23.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Amber Guffey averages 20.3 points, 5.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds. Paige Guffey averages 14.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 three-pointers per game.

Those three seniors are capable of winning a game pretty much on their own. On January 15 at Jacksonville State, Hayes, Guffey and Guffey combined for 87 of MSU’s 93 points.