Otahkians to make home debut tonight

After playing their opening two games a long way from Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri State University's Otahkians are looking forward to being in front of their own fans for the first time this season.

The Otahkians will tip off their home schedule tonight when Division II Oakland City from Indiana comes to the Show Me Center.

"It will be nice to have our first home game, and we're excited about having two straight at home," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen, whose squad will entertain Southern Illinois Saturday night.

Arnzen was relatively pleased with the way the Otahkians opened their season over the weekend as they split two games to finish third in the Texas-Pan American Tournament.

Southeast suffered a 78-63 loss to a very strong Montana team before bouncing back with a 72-55 consolation victory over host Texas-Pan American.

"I thought it was a good trip for us," Arnzen said. "Montana was a very good basketball team. They'll win a lot of games this year. They were just so big, we couldn't do anything.

"But I thought we bounced back well against Texas-Pan Am. Defensively, we really got after their guards and created a lot of steals and turnovers. LaShelle Porter and Veronica Benson just ate up their guards."

Junior forward Lori Chase, the Otahkians' leading scorer last year when she earned first-team all-Ohio Valley Conference honors, got off to a strong start with 45 points in the two games to make the all-tourney squad.

Benson and Porter contributed 21 and 15 points, respectively, in the consolation game.

Now Southeast will set its sights on Oakland City, which is 1-0 after beating Missouri Baptist 62-53 but is not expected to provide much of a challenge to the Otahkians, although Arnzen said they cannot afford to take anybody lightly.

"We've had some success against them in the past, but we can't look past any team," said Arnzen, whose squad is 5-0 all-time vs. the Mighty Oaks, including an 88-47 romp last season. "This early in the year, you're still trying to improve and this game will give us a chance to work on some things before the SIU game."

Arnzen expects Saturday's contest with the Salukis -- the first meeting between the teams in 20 years -- to be an interesting one.

"That should be a very good game," he said.