COSTLY COLLAPSE: OTAHKS LOSE LEAD, GAME 64-63

MURRAY, Ky. -- All week long, Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen had been extremely concerned about Thursday night's game at Murray State -- and apparently with good reason.

The Lady Racers scored the game's final five points in the last 28 seconds as they stunned the Otahkians 64-63 at the Regional Special Events Center.

Southeast, which had a four-game winning streak snapped, remained in first place in the Ohio Valley Conference, but the Otahkians saw their lead sliced to one-half game over three teams: Tennessee-Martin, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee Tech.

The Otahkians are now 17-7 overall and 12-4 in OVC play heading into Saturday's huge contest at Tennessee-Martin.

Murray State improved to 8-15 overall and 7-8 in league play.

"I was worried about this game for a month," said Arnzen. "Murray State is a good club and they had been playing so many close games. They finally won one of those and now they might really take off.

"This is a tough loss for us, but there is still so much to be decided (in the OVC race). Anything can still happen."

Southeast, which trailed for most of the game, staged a second-half rally and the Otahkians appeared to be in good shape as they led 63-59 with under 30 seconds left.

But Bobbi Coltharp drilled a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left to slice Southeast's lead to 63-62 and set the stage for a wild finish.

Murray State came up with a steal but missed two shots. There was a held-ball situation with 8.7 seconds left and the possession arrow favored the Lady Racers, but they missed a two-footer that would have given them the lead.

Another held-ball situation ensued and this time possession went to Southeast. But the Otahkians threw the ball out of bounds under their own basket, allowing Murray State to regain possession with 3.7 seconds remaining.

The Lady Racers passed the ball in to Danelle Watts and she hit a 10-footer from right in front of the basket with 1.6 seconds left to put Murray State ahead 64-63.

Southeast threw a pass nearly the length of the court but it was tipped and Murray State came up with the ball as the buzzer sounded.

"We let it slip away at the end," said Arnzen. "We didn't complete the pass on the out-of-bounds play and equally disappointing is that we didn't defend their out-of-bounds play better.

"They worked the same play two straight times where they got the ball inside right under the basket. They should have gone ahead early but they missed an easy shot. I wish they would have scored then because we would have had more time left."

Monika Gadson led Murray State offensively with 16 points. Also in double figures were Coltharp with 15, Eniko Verebes with 12 and Watts with 11.

Watts also grabbed 13 rebounds as the Lady Racers dominated the boards by a 46 to 30 count.

"Going into the game, one of my biggest concerns was rebounding," Arnzen said. "We didn't do a good job on the boards."

Pam Iversen and Regan Hughston -- two freshmen centers -- both scored 12 points to lead the Otahkians. Hughston came off the bench to hit six of nine shots. Rusty Sowers added 11 points.

Both teams were hampered by poor shooting, the Otahkians hitting 37 percent (20 of 54) and the Lady Racers hitting 39 percent (24 of 62).

"Both teams shot the ball poorly, but they played better than us and deserved to win," said Arnzen.

Southeast led 2-0 early but Murray State controlled most of the first half and carried a 34-29 lead into the break.

Murray State went ahead 48-39 early in the second half and the Lady Racers still led 54-47 when Southeast made its move.

Sowers nailed a 3-pointer, Iversen made two free throws and Sowers hit a pair of foul shots to complete a 7-0 run as the Otahkians pulled into a 54-54 tie with 3:27 remaining.

The Lady Racers took two more leads, but Southeast finally went ahead for the first time since early in the game when Iversen drilled a 10-foot baseline shot at the 1:32 mark, making it 61-59.

Hughston hit a 10-footer in the lane with 42 seconds left as the Otahkians went ahead 63-59 but they went the rest of the way scoreless as the Lady Racers pulled out the victory.