Box Score By Kevin Farr
Murray State Sports Information
HESSTON, Kan – It took a few minutes for the Murray State Lady Aggies to get the offense rolling but once they did it was an opening night avalanche of epic proportions on Friday.

Coach Nate Levine's squad exploded for convincing 102-36 throttling of Hesston College to open the early three-game road trip impressively. The Lady Aggies will have a quick turnaround, facing Central Christian College in McPherson, Kansas at Noon on Saturday.

Sophomore Mireia Casas' putback with 6:38 left in the opening period ended an early scoring drought and Murray State trailed 7-5 midway through the stanza. That's when the Lady Aggies strung together nine consecutive points to surge in front to stay.

The Lady Aggies forced five turnovers in the final two minutes of the first frame and turned all of those into transition points during a phenomenal 15-0 scoring blitz that put the visitors in front 34-10 after only 10 minutes. They never looked back from there.

In total, the relentless Murray State defensive pressure forced 39 Hesston turnovers for the game, including 24 that went directly as Lady Aggie steals. Many of those resulted in transition scoring chances at Murray State shot nearly 50 percent from the field for the game as they cashed in 43 points off turnovers.

The Lady Aggies' top scorer in the game came off the bench with sophomore newcomer Mya Cotto pouring in 28 points with 10 of 16 shooting from the field, thanks in large part to her team-high seven steals.

Arissa Garcia also reached double digits with 11 points in just 16 minutes of action in the blowout. Oliver Quapaw, Casas and Keshanti Gordon were just off the double figure mark with nine points apiece.

Latai Charles added seven points while Taja Bennett, Elyssia Brooks and Timber Carter all tossed in six. Ongolea Afu, Jordyn McNeal, Autumn Sipes-Louie contributed three points each with Brooklyn Weier rounding out the scoring with two.

"It was a good start for us," said head coach Nate Levine. "Our athleticism and pressure won us this game but we are still working out a lot of stuff with our execution. Our wing depth is important to us. Mireia starts for us but Mya and Keshanti off the bench are key to our success. They are both starting caliber players."