COLONELS RUN DOWN OTAHKS 62-61; LATE 9-0 SPURT POWERS EKU

RICHMOND, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team missed out on a golden opportunity Monday night to win for the first time ever at Eastern Kentucky.

The Otahkians had a 10-point lead with just under five minutes to play and were still ahead by seven with a little more than three minutes left.

But the Colonels, trailing 60-53, used a 9-0 run to take the lead for good and they held own in the final, frantic seconds to post a 62-61 victory.

Southeast thus fell out of a first-place Ohio Valley Conference tie. The Otahkians, 13-6 overall, are 8-3 in OVC play as they now trail both Tennessee-Martin and Middle Tennessee by one-half game. Those squads are each 8-2.

EKU improved to 10-8 overall and 7-4 in the OVC.

"This is one we should have had," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "We have to protect a 10-point lead when we have it in the last five minutes."

"We could have taken a gigantic step in the OVC but we fell short. We just have to regroup and we have to beat Morehead State (on the road Saturday)."

Moneik Campbell scored a career-high 18 points to lead the Otahkians. Freshman center Pam Iversen had her sixth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Rusty Sowers also scored 12 points.

Charlotte Sizemore paced EKU with 19 points and Jennifer King had 17.

The Otahkians were hurt by a woeful performance from 3-point range as they hit just two of 21 attempts.

A back-and-forth first half ended with Southeast on top 24-20, which marked the biggest lead of the opening 20 minutes for either squad. Campbell had 14 first-half points.

Things were also tight early in the second half before the Otahkians appeared to start to take control. A driving shot by Campbell put Southeast ahead 45-37 with about nine minutes left.

It was 45-39 when Sowers hit a jumper and then got a layup after a steal as the Otahkians opened up their biggest lead of the night at 49-39 with 7:28 remaining.

EKU pulled to within 52-46, but Paula Corder hit two free throws and then a basket as Southeast went back ahead by 10 at 56-46 with 4:55 left.

After EKU again rallied, Sowers hit two free throws with 3:19 left and the Otahkians again appeared to be in relatively good shape with a 60-53 lead.

But that's when the roof fell in. Southeast went more than two minutes without scoring and the Otahkians would get only one more point the rest of the way.

The Colonels scored the game's next nine points. A basket by Cathy Dues with 1:45 left tied the contest at 60 and King got inside for a hoop with 1:15 remaining as EKU went ahead 62-60.

Tajuana White made one of two free throws with just under a minute left to pull Southeast within 62-61.

After an EKU shot-clock violation, Southeast got the ball back with 28 seconds left. Corder missed from about 10 feet in the closing seconds, EKU's Sizemore rebounded and was fouled with 1.8 seconds left.

Sizemore missed the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second. Southeast rebounded and called a timeout with 1.2 seconds remaining but the Otahkians, needing to go the length of the floor, came up empty.