OTAHKIANS SUFFER OT LOSS TO LADY COLONELS

RICHMOND, Ky. -- It took overtime, but Eastern Kentucky's home-court domination of Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team continued Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Colonels handed the Otahkians a 91-86 defeat in the regular-season finale for both squads, keeping EKU's home record against Southeast perfect. The Otahkians have never won at McBrayer Arena.

Southeast, which had a three-game winning streak snapped, fell to 11-16 overall and 7-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Otahkians will play a first-round OVC postseason tournament game on the road Tuesday night.

EKU improved to 13-14 overall and 10-8 in the OVC. The Lady Colonels will also be on the road for the opening round of the league tourney.

"We had an opportunity to win the game, and that's about all you can ask on the road," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "I thought our effort was superb. We made some mistakes down the line, but we played hard."

Paula Corder-King led the Otahkians offensively with 19 points. Also scoring in double figures were Kristy Roherty with 14, Lori Chase with 13, Regan Hughston with 11 and Liea Toedte with 11. Hughston grabbed nine rebounds while Chase had eight and Corder-King seven.

Roherty, a freshman guard who leads the OVC in 3-point field-goal percentage, hit three of four 3-pointers, making her 15 of 23 from long range in the past four games.

Teresa McNair paced EKU with 20 points. She was followed by Marla Gearhart with 16, Candice Finley with 13, Susan Hatcher with 12 and Mikki Bond with 12.

The Otahkians, as has been the case most of the season, were bothered by turnovers with 24.

"We turned it over too much. That's been a problem for us all year," Arnzen said. "We also had trouble defending the post. Still, it was a great effort."

The game was tight virtually the whole way, although the Otahkians did open up a 24-14 lead midway through the first half.

EKU rallied to go ahead late in the opening half, but Roherty's 3-pointer with 1:07 left put Southeast up 40-39 at the break.

The second half see-sawed back and forth. Southeast's biggest lead was 51-43 early in the period while EKU led 69-63 in the late going.

Southeast was able to rally and force overtime when Roherty hit one of two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining for a 78-78 tie at the end of regulation.

The Otahkians never led in overtime. McNair hit two free throws just four seconds into the five-minute extra session for an 80-78 EKU lead and the Lady Colonels never allowed Southeast to catch up.

EKU opened up an 88-81 lead, but Southeast closed to within 88-86 in the final minute. The Lady Colonels then closed things out by scoring the game's final five points.

Despite the loss, Arnzen figures the Otahkians will still take plenty of confidence into the OVC Tournament.

"It's just good to play again," he said. "I feel good about the way we've finished up the (regular) season."