OTAHKIANS HOPE FOR BRIGHTER FORECAST

Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen figures its about time for his program to get back to its old winning ways.

The 1998-99 Otahkians will officially begin working toward that goal Saturday when practice starts. Southeast will have two home exhibition games Nov. 1 and Nov. 9 prior to the season opener Nov. 14 at home against Christian Brothers College.

"We're certainly looking forward to the start of practice," said Arnzen. "This is always an exciting time of the year, with the anticipation of a new season."

The Otahkians went 8-19 last season and they finished tied for eighth place in the 10-team Ohio Valley Conference with a 5-13 record. The year before, Southeast was just 5-21 and a last-place 3-15 in the OVC.

Before the last two struggling seasons, Southeast had compiled just one losing record in the past 13 years under Arnzen, who has a 280-151 career record as he enters his 16th season in charge of the Otahkians.

"The last two years were very humiliating for me and the entire Otahkian program," Arnzen said. "We would like to get back to the old days of winning and playing better basketball."

With seven players returning from last season's team, and with the addition of six new players, Arnzen is confident of a turnaround.

"We have high hopes," he said. "We don't want to put too much pressure on them right now, but with the new players we have along with the returning players, potentially we have the opportunity to be much better."

Southeast will be without last season's leading scorer and rebounder, Jamie Koester, who averaged more than 12 points and nearly nine rebounds per game in her final collegiate season.

But the Otahkians do return their next four leading scorers after Koester.

Senior Rusty Sowers, a 5-foot-5 guard, shot 36 percent from 3-point range and averaged 10.5 points per game.

Senior Tajuana White, a 5-9 forward, shot 53 percent from the field and averaged 8.8 points per game. White pulled down 5.2 rebounds per contest, second on the squad behind Koester in that category.

The Otahkians' only other seniors are twin sisters Shauna and Sherry Cook out of Jackson High School, a pair of 5-9 guards/forwards. Shauna made four starts and averaged 3.9 points per game, including a 31-point explosion against Murray State. Sherry averaged 1.2 points a contest.

Other returning starters for the Otahkians are 5-5 junior point guard Moneik Campbell (7.8 ppg, team-high 86 assists) and 6-1 sophomore center Annie Struve (6.5 ppg). Also back is 5-11 forward Kim Nicholson (1.4 ppg).

What particularly excites Arnzen about this season is a solid recruiting class that has added quite a bit of size inside.

In addition to Struve, the Otahkians will have the 6-3 Iverson sisters -- junior Allison and freshman Pam -- along with 6-1 freshman Reagan Hughston in the paint.

Allison Iverson was at Southeast last year but redshirted. Pam was a sought-after recruit who helped lead Denison High to the Iowa Final Four last season. Hughston led West Plains High to the Missouri Class 4A state championship last year and was named Missouri's player of the year.

A third freshman is 5-9 guard Tiffany Melis from Wisconsin.

The Otahkians have two junior-college transfers in 5-10 junior guard/forward Paula Corder from Three Rivers in Poplar Bluff and 5-9 guard Liea Toedte from Kaskaskia in Centralia, Ill.

Corder, who prepped at Ellington High, is an impressive long-range shooter who hit 83 3-pointers and averaged 20 points per game to earn juco All-American honors for Three Rivers. Toedte was also a juco All-American.

"We're certainly counting on the new players," Arnzen said. "I don't know of any position that really isn't up for grabs, which is good. We're a taller team than last year and a good shooting team. I think the ingredients for success are there."