Holt jolts Southeast in second half; Tech wins

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- If only Janet Holt would have stayed in foul trouble, Southeast Missouri State University's women might have had a chance to pull off an upset Saturday.

But Holt, who sat out much of the first half with two fouls, did not commit a foul in the second half and wound up with 35 points to lead Ohio Valley Conference power Tennessee Tech from a halftime deficit to an 87-69 victory.

The Golden Eaglettes improved to 15-5 overal, 8-1 in the OVC. The Otahkians fell to 12-9 and 4-6 with their third straight loss.

Holt, a senior forward and two-time OVC Player of the Year, leads the league in scoring and rebounding at nearly 24 points and nine boards per game.

Against Southeast, Holt scored 12 first-half points and hit five of six shots from the field. But she picked up her second foul 10 minutes into the period and sat on the bench for the final 10 minutes while the Otahkians built a 36-33 lead.

But there was no stopping Holt in the second half as she played 18 minutes and came out late only after the Eaglettes had the victory secured. Holt poured in 23 points in the final half and shot 15-for-20 from the floor overall, including two of three from 3-point range. In addition, she grabbed 11 rebounds.

"Too much Janet Holt," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "She's just a great player and a class act. We had no answer for her."

Virtually no OVC team has had an answer for Holt over the past few seasons, much to the delight of Tech coach Bill Worrell.

"Janet has been a great player for us," Worrell said. "Southeast did a good job in the first half, but I wasn't that worried at halftime. I thought we'd be in good shape with Janet back in the game."

Leah Bird added 17 points for the Eaglettes while Jennifer Wilhelm contributed 13.

Lori Chase paced the Otahkians with 24 points and Veronica Benson scored 18.

The Otahkians led by six points late in the opening half before settling for the three-point advantage at the break.

Southeast was still ahead 41-40 early in the second half but Tech used a 9-0 run -- Holt gave the Eaglettes the lead for good with a basket at the 17:12 mark that made it 42-41 -- to begin taking control.

The Otahkians were able to get within 49-46, but a 7-0 Tech spurt built its advantage to 10 points and Southeast never pulled closer than eight points the rest of the way as the Eaglettes posted their 18th straight home victory.

"We played well, a lot better than at Tennessee State," said Arnzen, referring to an overtime loss Thursday. "We played hard in the second half but couldn't get the shots to fall."

Tech blistered the nets for 61.8-percent shooting in the final half and finished at 56.5 percent. Southeast shot 42.6 percent for the game.

mmishow@semissourian.com

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