The understatement of the weekend would be to say Murray State had fun on its Senior Night.

The Racers never allowed the Panthers (8-19, 5-11) to gain control during their 84-53 blowout of Eastern Saturday night.

In fact, for the first seven minutes one might be confused on whether or not Eastern had made the bus trip to Murray.

In a game the Panthers never led, the Racers took the opening tip and rattled off 18 straight points to start off the contest and never trailed from that moment on.

“I am very proud of this team,” Racers head coach Joi Williams said. “We came out with intensity in a very emotion-filled day.”

Eastern fought back, outscoring MSU 18-3 over the next eight minutes to close to within 26-20, and matched that when Meggie Eck put in a three to close the Murray State lead to 31-25 with 3:22 left in the half.

The Lady Racers closed the half outscoring the Panthers 8-2 over the last three minutes, taking a 39-27 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Murray State used a 10-0 run when junior guard Rebecca Remington put in a layup, senior guard Stacy Holmes sank a basket and Fuqua popped in back-to-back threes to give MSU a 54-31 lead with 14:53 left in regulation.

Williams was happy to see this group of seniors perform so well in their final game at the Regional Special Events Center as it’s the first class she is directly related to.

“This was my first senior class as a head coach, and I couldn’t ask for a better group,” Williams said. We had good leadership, and that’s what being a team is all about.”

One of those seniors managed to break a record from beyond the arc Saturday night as Megan Fuqua made her final game memorable.

Fuqua scored 17 points on six of 19 shooting, which included five of 18 from three. Her 18 three point attempts set a school record and she broke her own record for made attempts by nailing five Saturday.

The Racers (13-14, 9-7) as a team also broke season highs with its 84 points, 23 assists and 31-point margin of victory.

This loss guaranteed the Panthers would finish ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference standings, their lowest finish since joining the league in 1996.

In her final game in a Panther uniform, senior guard Lauren Dailey scored 11 points shooting three of 10 from the field.

Fellow senior forward Katie Meyers got her third start of the season and had three rebounds in 13 minutes of play.

The Racers now prepare to travel to Cape Girardeau, Mo. and face Southeast Missouri in the first round of the OVC Tournament.

“I hope we can build on this emotion,” Williams said. “I hope we can be cutting down some nets and getting a ring.”