Lady Mustangs take second in Bluegrass Tourney

In the annual Bluegrass Conference basketball tournament, the Murray Lady Mustangs finished in second-place Saturday, falling 53-49 in overtime to the Ankeny Christian Lady Eagles.

After receiving bye in round one, Murray traveled to Moravia last Tuesday to face off against Mormon Trail where they put up a 56-38 win.

In the game, Maliya Berry added 37 points to her season total plus 14 rebounds, five steals and one block. Keirsten Klein contributed five points to the game with three rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. 12 points came in from four other players with three each: Mallory Page, Leah Frederick, Aylah Miller and Ella Mateer. Page and Miller both had five rebounds and Frederick made six steals. The Lady Mustangs had 20 turnovers and 17 team fouls; Karina Romero fouled out.

Friday, they traveled to Seymour to take on Moravia in the semi-finals where they walked away with a 40-30 win. Leading 24-12 at halftime, the Mohawks came within seven points at the end of the third, but the Mustangs were able to hold them down to out-score them in the fourth quarter.

Berry made 13 points in the game and 17 rebounds, along with four steals, two assists and two blocks. Page made eight points with four assists and two steals, and Klein had seven rebounds. Miller had the most steals of the team with six.

Back at Seymour Saturday, Ankeny Christian kept small leads over Murray at the end of the first three quarters - 3, 5 and 1 respectively - until Murray tied the game in the fourth quarter. Overtime saw their opponents put up 8 points to their 4.

Two Mustangs hit double-digit points - Berry with 17 and Klein with 13. With 28 team rebounds, eight were made by Berry and seven by Page while 18 team steals came from Berry with five, Miller with five, Klein three, Page two, Mateer two and Frederick one.