MURRAY — For much of the season, Murray State guard Macey Turley has stacked the stat sheet in numerous areas, except one. Surprisingly, it has been scoring.
One of the all-time best shooters in the program’s history, Turley has had issues getting the ball to go through the basket. That is why what happened Sunday in an 83-48 blowout for the Racers (11-4, 4-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference) of Valley opponent Bradley (3-15, 0-6 in Valley play) may be very bad news for future opponents. Turley’s shot began finding its target as she hit four 3-pointers as part of a season-best 20-point day.
“I don’t know … I guess it was in my head?” Turley said after the game, answering a question as to why she had her breakout game on Sunday, where she was 8-of-11 overall and a deadly 4-of-5 on triples, as well as why her shot had not been falling . “This was a good night but I can’t think about it too much. Hopefully, it’ll stay with me.”
With three-time Valley Player of the Week forward Katelyn Young continuing to post big numbers (24 points and eight rebounds Sunday), Racers Head Coach Rechelle Turner has been preaching the need for the Racers to find more double-digit scorers, three to four a game. With Turley’s return to normal (she was a four-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection and is only the second player in school history to score 1,600 points and tally 400 assists) on Sunday and forward Hannah McKay’s double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, gymnasts got her wish.
“We knew Macey was due a breakout game, so we wanted to put her in position to get a pull-up jumper early,” Turner said of the Racers’ first points off a medium-range jumper that tied the game at 2-2 . That was immediately followed by another medium-range jumper for a 4-2 lead that only kept growing from that point. “She just needed to see the ball go in the basket and our kids did a really outstanding job of finding her and developing space to allow her to get those shots off.”
Turley’s first two jumpers were only the beginning of a big day offensively for the Racers. They were 33-of-60 from the field (55%) and 9-of-19 (a solid 47.4%) from 3-point range on a day they scored 24 baskets off assists and had 11 score players points.
That went a long way to making this game have little drama as the Racers led 44-27 at the half, then exploded to a 64-35 lead after three quarters. However, Turner was quick to note that the Braves could easily have been quite the challenge, as their most recent outing against an Illinois State team currently tied with Northern Iowa for first in The Valley indicated.
“I watched every second of it and, while it was a 10-point game (60-50 Illinois State win in Peoria, Illinois), it was a three-point game, with Bradley’s ball, with two minutes to go in the game ,” she said.
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