OTAHKIANS ENCOUNTER THE WRATH OF TECH

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The last time Tennessee Tech and Southeast Missouri State University met in women's basketball, the Golden Eaglettes used a 13-point second-half rally and a shot at the buzzer in overtime to prevail at the Show Me Center.

Tuesday night, however, Tech needed no such late heroics. The Eaglettes, clicking on all cylinders for much of the game, built a big early lead and rolled past visiting Southeast 89-75 as they remained undefeated in Ohio Valley Conference play.

Tech, which recorded its 14th straight victory, improved to 18-4 overall and 11-0 in OVC play as the Eaglettes close in on a second straight conference championship.

The Otahkians fell to 12-9 overall and 7-4 in the OVC as they dropped into fourth place in the nine-team league.

"Tennessee Tech just has an outstanding basketball team and they were really a good ballclub tonight," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "They shot the ball awfully well, especially in the first half.

"To play well here, you have to bring your A' game. We didn't do that."

Tech junior center Janet Holt, the reigning OVC Player of the Year who is also the conference's leading scorer, fell just one point shy of matching her season average as she put in 23 points. Holt hit 10 of 13 shots from the field.

The Eaglettes also got 23 points from an unlikely source reserve freshman forward Crystal Andrews, who entered the contest averaging just under six points per game. Andrews was 11 of 13 from the floor.

"Andrews did an excellent job on us inside," Arnzen said.

Another freshman forward, Andrea Brown, added 14 points for the Eaglettes. Misty Garrett recorded 14 assists.

Lori Chase paced Southeast with 21 points and she also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. LaShelle Porter added 17 points for the Otahkians and Christine Rathke contributed 10.

This one was never really in doubt from the very beginning as Tech scored the game's first basket, was tied just twice -- at 2-2 and 5-5 -- and never trailed.

Southeast did manage to hang close for a while, using a 6-0 run to pull within 13-12 in the early going. But the Eaglettes answered with five straight points to start a 13-3 burst as they opened up a 26-15 lead.

The Eaglettes kept on sizzling, building two late first-half leads of 23 points before settling for a 45-24 advantage at the break.

Tech shot a blistering 66.7 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, hitting 18 of 27. The Eaglettes also were five of eight from 3-point range in the first half for 62.5 percent.

On the other hand, the Otahkians shot just 30.8 percent in the opening period on eight of 26 and about the only early offense they had came from Chase, who had 14 points by the intermission.

"They really jumped on us early," said Arnzen.

The Eaglettes opened up their biggest lead of the night at 62-37 just six minutes into the second half.

To the Otahkians' credit, they kept battling and refused to let Tech completely blow them out of the Eblen Center.

In fact, the Otahkians even made things semi-interesting in the late going, pulling to within 76-64 as Porter, who had 13 second-half points, scored on a drive with a little more than five minutes remaining. Southeast then had possession with a chance to get even closer. But after an Otahkian miss, Tech used an 8-0 run to go back up by 20 points at 84-64. Southeast could get no closer than 14 the rest of the way.

"I was proud of our kids in the second half for coming back," Arnzen said.

Tech's offense dropped off little in the final half as the Eaglettes wound up shooting 64.8 percent for the game (35 of 54) while Southeast finished at 39.7 percent (27 of 68).