Otahkians close frustrating week with OVC defeat

Morehead State is the latest Ohio Valley Conference women's basketball team to contribute to Southeast Missouri State University's trouble at home.

The Otahkians suffered their third loss of the week at the Show Me Center Saturday night after the Lady Eagles used a late 10-0 run in a 79-70 victory.

MSU improved to 12-3 overall and evened its Ohio Valley Conference record at 2-2. Southeast fell to 8-6 and 1-3.

"It really is disappointing," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen of a week that included losses by three points to Tennessee Tech and by 27 points to Eastern Kentucky. "I know it's tough competition, but we had a chance to do something this week and we didn't do it."

Lady Eagles' coach Laura Litter was elated that her team was finally able to break through in Cape Girardeau. MSU had lost all 10 games it played at the Show Me Center.

"Any win is a good win," Litter said. "but certainly coming into this gym where it's been hard for us to win."

Tasha Gales, a 6-foot-2 forward, led all scorers with 22 points. Also in double figures for MSU were Kandi Brown (13) and Travece Turner (10).

"Gales is an excellent player," Arnzen said. "If they get the ball to her it's almost automatic."

Southeast got 20 points and 12 rebounds from Pam Iversen, who helped the Otahkians win the rebounding war 40-27. Lori Chase added 17 points for Southeast and Veronica Benson had 10.

In the long run, the Otahkians could not make up for a miserable first half that saw them commit 14 turnovers, miss all seven of their 3-point attempts and shoot just 38.7 percent from the field overall in falling behind 36-28 at the intermission.

"The first half was really the key to the game," said Arnzen. "We had too many turnovers and got in a hole."

The Otahkians, whose only lead was 2-0, trailed 53-41 in the second half when they finally got going.

A 19-7 run capped by a Chase basket with 7:26 remaining pulled the Otahkians even at 60-60 and accounted for the game's first tie since 6-6.

There were two more ties, at 62 and 64, although the Otahkians never pushed ahead.

MSU then took control with a 10-0 run.

Southeast wound up with 21 turnovers and shot 42.4 percent (25 of 59), but the Otahkians made just 20 percent of their 3-point attempts (three of 15).

MSU, which had 16 turnovers, shot 47.7 percent (31 of 65), including 42.9 percent on 3-pointers (six of 14).

"The crowd for the men's game started coming in and really got behind them when they came back," Litter said. "But we were able to regroup late in the game."