Currie-Jelks scores 32, Racers beat George Mason
WBB: Keslyn Secrist also grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds in the win
Murray State beat George Mason, 88-83, Friday afternoon in the opening game of the Daytona Beach Classic. Here’s what you need to know:
With the win, Murray State improves to 4-2 overall on the season
Sharnecce Currie-Jelks scored a career-high 32 points, and also grabbed 11 rebounds
Keslyn Secrist scored 11 points to go along with a career-best 15 rebounds
Haven Ford (22 points) and Halli Poock (19 points) were the other Racers that scored in double-figures
George Mason’s Zahirah Walton scored 42 points to lead the Patriots
The Racers finished 29-of-33 at the free throw line
Murray State will face Boston College Saturday morning at 10:00am CST
Currie-Jelks continues her dominant start
For the fourth time in six games this season, Sharnecce Currie-Jelks recorded a double-double to lead the Racers offensively. She scored a career-high 32 points, with 21 of those coming in the second half, and grabbed 11 rebounds. After playing a total of 19 minutes and scoring four points in her two seasons at Indiana, Currie-Jelks has adapted seamlessly to the Murray State program.
“It’s been great because the coaches and my teammates, they believe so much in me,” Currie-Jelks said. “It’s almost like free will to just do whatever and make mistakes. You have teammates that will pick you up and will also continue to encourage you. The coaches, they know that it’s not a perfect game, and they continue to encourage you even when you’re having a bad game. That’s a good atmosphere to be around, and it makes me want to just continue to play.”
Racers tough out a win vs. Patriots
George Mason is coming off a 27-win season where they went to the NCAA Tournament. Their top player, Zahirah Walton, scored 42 points Friday against the Racers. The last time a player scored at least 42 points and their team still lost the game came back in March, when Drake’s Katie Dinnebier scored 45 points in a loss to — Murray State.
There was nothing easy today for the Racers against an NCAA-caliber team who was ranked in the Top 65 in the national computer rankings heading into today. With all that said, the Racers pushed through the hard and picked up a significant non-conference win.
“We challenged them really, really hard about our toughness after we watched UAB film,” Murray State Head Coach Rechelle Turner said. “Defensively, we weren’t tough. We were letting people push us around. We weren’t getting through stuff. We weren’t jumping stuff like we asked them to. We probably had one of the hardest practices since the Southern Indiana practice last year, but they just answered the call. Toughness was what it was all about today. We knew it was going to be tough. We knew we were going to turn the ball over some. We had way too many turnovers, but in the second half, at least when we turned it over we dribbled it off our foot out-of-bounds and it wasn’t a live-ball turnover. The number that stands out to me is we outrebounded them 43-to-29 and that’s what you’ve got to have against a team like that. Keslyn (Secrist) had her career-high in rebounds today with 15, and then obviously Sharnecce had a career-high in points. I thought our little guards hung tough and just continue to make play after play. When we asked Briley (Pena) to guard a kid that was six inches taller than her, she’s going to get in there and she’s going to fight. The heart and soul and the toughness that this team showed tonight is what we’ve been looking for because that is a very, very good win. That is a very good George Mason team and NCAA team from last year.”
Secrist has another big rebounding day
In her two seasons at Indiana State, Keslyn Secrist had two games where she grabbed at least 10 rebounds. It’s taken just six games in a Murray State uniform for her to that for a third time. Her 15 rebounds against George Mason surpassed her previous career-high of 11. Secrist is averaging 9.2 rebounds per game this season after averaging 3.1 boards in her two years at Indiana State.
Murray State’s dynamic backcourt has their best game
Junior guards Halli Poock and Haven Ford have had good games this season, but never on the same night. That finally changed against George Mason. Poock and Ford combined for 41 points on 12-of-26 shooting from the field, ten rebounds and six assists. They were also a perfect 16-of-16 at the free throw line.
Next up: A matchup against Boston College
There’s a quick turnaround for Murray State, as they’ll face Boston College Saturday morning at 10:00am CST in the final game of the Daytona Beach Classic. The Eagles lost their first game in Daytona to James Madison, 73-53, Friday morning. Playing an ACC team is just one of several challenges the Racers will face tomorrow.
“It’s just the lack of preparation time,” Turner said. “The only thing we’ll have is that we’ll draw a court at the hotel, and we’ll just have to walk through stuff. We do not get on the court again until gametime tomorrow, because we have the first game of the day, and there are no practices tonight. There are no practices in the morning. We’ll just rely on a lot of film, but mostly we’re just going to rely on toughness. I know (Boston College) will come out ready to be hungry for a win after not winning today. It’s another great opportunity for us, another chance for us to get better. It’s all about pressing towards December 29 (and the Missouri Valley opener vs. Evansville).