EVANSVILLE, Ind. – An early flurry of points propelled Murray State toward a berth in the semifinals of the Credit Union 1 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Halli Poock scored 21 points and the top-seeded Racers rolled past No. 9 seed Bradley 86-50 to start the quarterfinal round at the Ford Center on Friday.

Murray State (23-7) is the nation’s highest-scoring team, averaging 87.7 points, and it showed in the early going. The Racers sped to a 14-2 lead in the first 4 ½ minutes, taking advantage of seven Bradley turnovers and forcing the Braves (14-19) into a game of catch-up.

Bradley just didn’t have the firepower to stay with the league’s co-champions, who won for the eighth straight time.

Murray State reached the Valley semifinals for the first time and will play again at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Poock, who played for Bradley last season, tormented her former team by making 8 of 12 shots, including two 3-pointers, handing our four assists and grabbing four rebounds.

Haven Ford added 17 points, three assists and three steals for the Racers, Katelyn Young scored 13 and Ava Learn contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Trinity White posted a strong line with 10 rebounds, six points, four assists and two steals.

Murray State shot 80 percent in the opening quarter (12-for-15) and 51 percent for the game and outrebounded Bradley 46-24.

The 36-point margin matched the fifth largest in MVC tourney history and it came against the league’s best defensive team. Bradley had been giving up just 58.8 points a game. Murray State is the only team this season to score more than 75 points on the Braves and the Racers did it twice, winning the regular-season game 81-55.

Soleil Barnes led Bradley with 14 points, while Claire McDougall and Ellie McDermid scored nine each for the Braves, who showed major improvement this season. Their 14 wins are four more than they posted in the three previous seasons combined.

Poock got things started by driving for layup just 9 seconds into the game. After McDougill answered for Bradley, Murray State ran off 12 straight points with four different players scoring, converting one turnover after another into baskets.

It was 19-8 midway through the quarter and Young’s layup with 3 seconds left made it 29-16 at the break. The Racers went 4-for-4 on 3-pointers in the opening quarter and ended up making their first six shots from deep in building a 47-24 lead. It was 49-29 at halftime, putting the Racers on pace to become the first team in Valley tournament history to score 100.

The pace slowed a bit after that, but Bradley never got closer than 19 points and Murray State outscored the Braves 23-8 in the fourth quarter to win going away.

Murray State’s 23 victories match the second most in school history. One more victory would tie the school record (24-8 in 2007-08).