OTAHK HOMESTAND BEGINS WITH A LOSS

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team, after struggling for most of the season, had high hopes of making plenty of noise during a crucial four-game home stretch.

That may still happen -- but the Otahkians certainly didn't get the homestand off on the right foot.

Eastern Illinois University, one of the surprise teams of the Ohio Valley Conference so far, scored the first seven points of the second half and then held off Southeast 77-70 Saturday night at the Show Me Center.

The Lady Panthers improved to 9-7 overall and 5-3 in the OVC, good for fourth place. Southeast is now 4-13 overall and a last-place 2-7 in the 10-team league."It's disappointing because I really felt like this was one we had to have," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen, whose squad has won just three of 10 home games. "It disturbs me that we can't win at home."EIU's Allison Lee, a 6-foot-1 center, repeatedly got inside for easy baskets and scored a game-high 25 points. Sarah Probst had 16, Barbora Gorbova 15 and Nora Hendrix 14."We gave up too many easy baskets," said Arnzen. "And Nora Hendrix hit a couple of really key shots late. She's from Massac County (Ill.) and she's a fine player. She plays very hard."Jamie Koester paced the Otahkians with 22 points while Kim Palmer had 19. No other Southeast player scored more than six points.

Southeast scored the game's first four points and led 7-2 early. The lead changed hands several times after that before the Otahkians built their biggest advantage of the game at 29-23.

The Lady Panthers, however, rallied to go ahead 34-33 at halftime. They then came out and scored the first seven points of the second half to go ahead 41-33."For the third game in a row we came out of the locker room (at halftime) not ready to play," Arnzen said. "We fell behind and then you have to expend so much energy catching up."EIU built its lead to 45-36, but the Otahkians stormed back to pull within one point twice. Palmer's four straight points made it 54-53 and another Palmer basket made it 56-55.

But the Lady Panthers would not fold. They built their lead back to 60-55. Then, after Southeast pulled to within 61-59, EIU used a 6-2 run to go up 67-61. The Otahkians never got closer than four points after that."We were a lot more aggressive offensively in the second half," said EIU coach John Klein.

The Lady Panthers had a big edge at the free-throw line as they hit 23 of 27 foul shots compared to 10 of 15 for the Otahkians."Free throws were a big key," said Arnzen. "We were not aggressive defensively and we put them on the line too much."Now the Otahkians will have a week off before hosting Tennessee State next Saturday night."We really need the time off because we're a tired club," Arnzen said. "We're tired mentally as well as physically."