Otahkians fall victim to late UT-Martin rally

MARTIN, Tenn. -- Because of a late Tennessee-Martin rally Monday night, Southeast Missouri State University's women missed out on a chance to move into a second-place Ohio Valley Conference tie and also clinch a home game for the first round of the OVC Tournament.

Amy Watson made two free throws with five seconds remaining, capping a comeback from a 12-point second-half deficit as the Skyhawks beat the visiting Otahkians 60-59.

The Otahkians fell to 15-9 overall and a third-place 9-4 in the OVC as they remained one game behind second-place Eastern Kentucky, which lost at Morehead State. Southeast is still in good shape to host a first-round OVC Tournament game, a reward that goes to the top four finishers.

UTM improved to 10-14 and 7-6 to remain in a fourth-place tie with Morehead State.

"Offensively, we're just not playing very well right now. You can't win basketball games scoring 59 points," Southeast coach B.J. Smith said. "We didn't make plays to finish the game."

Carina Souza was the only player to score in double figures for the Otahkians as she had 13 points. Souza also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

Sarah Costello and Yashika Sidbury both scored nine points and freshman Shannon Proffit added eight. Costello had six assists and five steals.

Amy Watson poured in 23 points to pace the Skyhawks.

Southeast scored the game's first six points but saw UTM battle back for a 14-14 tie. The Otahkians later went ahead by 10 points before settling for a 29-24 halftime lead.

UTM tallied the first five points of the second half to pull into a 29-29 tie and a short time later the Skyhawks grabbed their initial lead of the night at 33-31.

Kenja White's 3-pointer with 15:33 remaining put Southeast back on top 36-33 and the Otahkians later opened up a 12-point lead as they appeared ready to bury the Skyhawks.

But UTM rallied to within 59-58 in the final minute, then a Southeast turnover gave the Skyhawks possession in the closing seconds.

Watson was fouled while shooting with 5.1 seconds remaining and she hit both free throws for a 60-59 lead. Costello's short shot was off the mark at the buzzer.

"You're not going to like all the calls, but the officials didn't beat us. We beat ourselves," Smith said.

The Otahkians shot just 37.9 percent from the field (22 of 58), including three of 16 on 3-pointers, and had 23 turnovers. The Skyhawks shot 35 percent (21 of 60) and had 18 turnovers.

Southeast returns to action Saturday, hosting OVC leader Austin Peay in the final home game of the regular season.