OTAHKIANS WANT NO. 1 OVC STATUS TO ENDURE

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team, picked to finish eighth in the Ohio Valley Conference, finds itself in first place in the 10-team league.

But if the Otahkians are going to remain there for the next few days, they will definitely earn it.

The Otahkians face a brutal two-game road trip, beginning tonight with a 5:45 tipoff against Middle Tennessee State at Hale Arena.

Then Saturday, the Otahkians will take on Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.

MTSU is the defending OVC Tournament champion and the Lady Raiders were picked second in the league's preseason poll.

Tech shared last year's regular-season OVC title and was the preseason choice to win the conference this season.

"It's nice to be in first place, but we'll have to play really well if we want it to last a while," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "This road trip will be an extremely difficult one for us. We'll be facing two excellent teams."

That being said, however, Arnzen believes this year's squad will be able to compete with any team in the league -- no matter where the game is played.

"I truly believe that we have a chance to beat anybody in the league if we play well," Arnzen said. "We're just going to take it one game at a time on this trip and see what happens."

The Otahkians, off to their best start since moving up to the Division I level in the 1991-92 season, are 9-2 overall and 4-0 OVC play. Southeast has won seven straight games.

MTSU, 6-5 overall, is 2-1 in OVC play, which puts them in a three-way tie for third place, along with Tech and Tennessee State. Tennessee-Martin is a game behind Southeast at 3-1.

"Middle Tennessee is very quick and they press all over the floor," Arnzen said. "That's really a problem for us with Moneik (Campbell)."

Campbell, the Otahkians' point guard, has missed the past two games with an infection. She was scheduled to resume light practice Wednesday and probably won't see action tonight, although she could see spot duty Saturday.

"We miss Moneik, but like any good team, you have to have other people pick up the slack," said Arnzen.

The Otahkians were able to do that in both games Campbell has missed. During Saturday's double-overtime win over Eastern Kentucky, Shauna Cook had nine assists. Then Monday, in a win over Morehead State, Rusty Sowers took over and played quite a bit of point guard.

Paula Corder continues to lead the Otahkians offensively (16.8 ppg). Also in double figures are Sowers (11.4 ppg) and Pam Iversen (11.1 ppg).

Iversen leads the OVC in free-throw shooting (96 percent) while Corder is second (92 percent). Corder is first in 3-point shooting (51 percent).

Iversen, a freshman, is Southeast's leading rebounder (8.1 rpg) while she and her older sister Allison have each blocked 17 shots to pace the squad.