OTAHKIANS SCORE FINAL 13 POINTS IN 83-70 VICTORY OVER EIU

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team picked up a much-needed victory Saturday night, and it came with about as much difficulty as Otahkian coach Ed Arnzen had imagined.

The Otahkians scored the final 13 points of the game to break open a tight contest as they beat Eastern Illinois 83-70 at the Show Me Center.

Southeast, which snapped a three-game losing streak, improved to 6-10 overall and 3-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play. EIU fell to 4-12 overall, 2-6 in the OVC.

"We really needed this one," said Arnzen. "I thought it would be like this. Like I've said, it's Tennessee Tech and everybody else (in the OVC race). I don't care if it's Morehead or Eastern Illinois, the games are going to be tight."

Saturday's certainly was. With two minutes left, the squads were tied 70-70 after EIU's Angie Patzner scored a conventional three-point play.

But Southeast freshman Kristy Roherty then hit the contest's biggest basket, a 3-pointer with 1:55 left that gave the Otahkians a 73-70 lead and started their game-ending flurry.

"Coach always tells me I have the green light and I knew I was open," said Roherty, who hit three of five 3-pointers in the game. "I like taking those kind of shots."

After an EIU miss, Moneik Campbell hit both ends of a one-and-one with 1:26 left for a 75-70 Southeast lead.

Lori Chase, another Southeast freshman, then came up with a steal that led to a Campbell layup that made it 77-70 with just over a minute remaining.

Southeast then scored six more points to seal things, getting two free throws from Paula Corder-King, a steal and layup by Campbell and a layup by Roherty.

"We made some big plays down the stretch," said Arnzen. "Kristy's basket (that broke the 70-all tie) was the biggest basket of the night."

Pam Iversen paced the Otahkians offensively with 20 points and she also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.

Corder-King scored 19 points while Roherty had 13 and Campbell added 10 to go along with five assists.

EIU had a balanced offensive attack that featured six players in double figures. Colleen McShane had 13 points, Brooke Gossett scored 11 and Patzner, Angie Russell, Leah Aldrich-Franklin and Renee Schaul all added 10.

The Otahkians started strong, getting two early 3-pointers from Corder-King to lead 6-0. A basket by Regan Hughston, who scored eight points, made it 10-2.

But that eight-point margin would be the biggest lead for either team the rest of the way until Southeast's late-game run.

EIU rallied to go up 29-23, but Roherty's 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half helped Southeast take a 38-37 lead into the break.

The lead see-sawed back and forth for most of the second half, with neither squad going up by more than four points, before Southeast's 13-0 run in the final two minutes.

"We needed it," said Roherty of the victory. "We've been losing a lot of close games, but we've been sticking together. We know we have a good team."

Southeast shot 48 percent from the field for the game (28 of 58), including 52 percent in the second half (17 of 33).

The Otahkians sizzled from the free-throw line, hitting 21 of 24 for 88 percent.

Next up for the Otahkians will be a Thursday night home game against Morehead State, which is in last place in the OVC.

"But there won't be much difference between Morehead and most of the other teams (in the OVC)," cautioned Arnzen. "That's just the way the league is this year."