Southeast hopes to climb back over .500 by Friday

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team has lost four straight games, but the team should have a golden opportunity to climb above the .500 mark before the new year begins.

Southeast figures to be a solid favorite as it closes out the 2004 portion of its schedule with a pair of home games, at 12:30 p.m. today against Chicago State and at 6 p.m. Friday against Division II Oakland City, Ind.

"We should have a good chance to win these next two games, but you never want to take anybody for granted and overlook anybody," Southeast coach B.J. Smith said. "It's important we get these next two and get some momentum going into our conference schedule."

Southeast has dipped to 4-5 because of its recent skid, but Smith isn't all that concerned because three of the defeats were against highly regarded teams from bigger conferences.

Smith's squad was competitive in all three of those losses to higher profile programs, including last Wednesday's 73-64 home setback to Southwest Missouri State.

"I've said all along that, with all our new players, it's going to take some time for us to really play well together, and we've just got to be patient," Smith said. "But I think we're getting better all the time, and we just have to keep working at it."

Junior center Tatiana Conceicao, Southeast's leading scorer, was held to a season-low five points in the loss to Southwest Missouri, as her season average dipped to 19.1 points per game.

But Smith said that as the year goes on he expects Southeast to be less dependent on the junior college transfer as its primary scoring option.

"As the year goes along, I think we'll get a lot more balanced," Smith said. "We've got people that are going to play a lot better than they are right now."

One player performing much better than she did early in the season is junior forward Simone Jackson, another of Southeast's 10 first-year players.

Jackson, a junior college transfer, has reached double figures in three of Southeast's past four games and is averaging 12 points over that span. For the season, she is averaging 8.8 points -- fourth-best on the team -- and shooting a sizzling 65.3 percent from the field.

"Simone is really playing well, like we thought she could all along," Smith said.

Another juco transfer, junior forward Natalie Purcell, is Southeast's second-leading scorer at 11.1 points per game. Senior guard Brandi Russia, one of just four returning players from last season, also is in double figures at 10.2.

Of Southeast's next two games, today's contest should be the toughest, as Chicago State (5-5) is much improved after going 8-20 last season. The Cougars are led by junior forward Renada Blackburn, who averages more than 11 points per game.

"They've gotten a lot better. They'll be a pretty good test for us," Smith said.

Oakland City (3-4), a Division II squad, is led by senior guard Erin Evans' 20.4 points per game.

"We need to get these two before we start conference play," Smith said.

Southeast opens its Ohio Valley Conference schedule Jan. 6 at defending champion Austin Peay.