Otahkians hold on through late rally, keep Racers reeling

MURRAY, Ky. -- What looked like a fairly routine win for Southeast Missouri State University's women turned into a second-half struggle.

But all that mattered to the Otahkians was that they were able to survive for a 62-53 Ohio Valley Conference victory over host Murray State Saturday afternoon.

Southeast, which bounced back from Wednesday's non-conference upset loss at IUPU-Fort Wayne, improved to 15-8 overall and 9-3 in league play.

MSU fell to 5-17 and 1-10 with its fifth straight setback. The Racers are last in the nine-team OVC.

"You have to win these kinds of games when you don't play very well," Southeast coach B.J. Smith said. "It's better than Wednesday night when we played bad and lost."

Junior forward Yashika Sidbury led the Otahkians offensively with 18 points and hit seven of 13 field-goal attempts, including four of eight 3-pointers.

"We didn't play too good, but the main thing is we won," Sidbury said. "We needed it after the other night."

Freshman guard Tiffanne Ryan was the only other Otahkian in double figures with 11 points, including two of four from 3-point range. Ryan also had four assists, as did junior guard Sarah Costello.

The Otahkians got a lift from their other freshman, forward Shannon Proffit, who came off the bench to make two of three 3-pointers and score eight points. Junior forward Carina Souza also had eight points.

"Shannon hit some big shots for us," Smith said. "We've tried to get her to be more aggressive."

Sophomore guard Brittany Park paced the Racers with 18 points. Senior forward Beth Schnakenberg, the OVC's leading scorer at 17.6 points per game entering the contest, added 14 points but hit just five of 21 shots.

After falling behind 6-0 in the game's opening moments, the Otahkians regrouped to lead 29-18 at halftime despite shooting just 40 percent from the field and committing 12 turnovers. MSU shot just 21.4 percent in the opening period.

"Our defense was better in the first half than it's been in a while, but our offense was stagnant," Smith said.

Sidbury was largely responsible for the Otahkians' halftime advantage as she hit three of five 3-pointers and scored 11 points. She hit three consecutive 3-pointers during one stretch as Southeast began to pull away.

But MSU began the second half with a 13-2 run -- Schnakenberg got nine of the points after being held to just two in the first half -- to pull into a 31-31 tie.

After Southeast went back ahead 33-31, MSU grabbed its first lead since early in the contest when Park's 3-pointer with 13:21 left made it 34-33.

The squads were tied at 38-38 before Southeast finally took control with a 7-0 run.

Senior guard LaShelle Porter's fast-break layup with 10:33 remaining put the Otahkians up for good, 40-38. Proffit drilled a 3-pointer and Souza made two free throws to complete the spurt.

MSU was still hanging around at 47-44 when senior forward Lori Chase, the Otahkians' leading scorer who had just five points but grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, hit a 3-pointer to start another 7-0 run that ended with Sidbury's basket to make it 54-44.

The Racers pulled to within 57-51 in the final moments but could get no closer.

"We played all right in the first half, but we didn't play too good in the second half," Sidbury said. "I think we just relaxed a little bit."

Southeast wound up shooting 42.3 percent in the game (22 of 52) and finished with 18 turnovers. MSU shot just 30 percent (18 of 60).

The Otahkians have another OVC road game Monday night against Tennessee-Martin.

mmishow@semissourian.com

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