Otahkians win opening-round game

Southeast Missouri State University evidently wasn't bothered one bit by the two-game losing streak it carried into the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Thursday's upset loss at Murray State also didn't apparently concern the Otahkians very much.

Playing in front of a vocal crowd totaling nearly 700 fans at the Show Me Center Tuesday night, the fourth-seeded Otahkians rolled past fifth-seeded Murray State 76-51.

The Otahkians (16-12) advance to Friday's tournament semifinals in Nashville, Tenn., where they will take on OVC regular-season champion Austin Peay at noon. The Governors have won the past three tournament titles and they beat Southeast in last year's championship game.

"It's exciting to be going back to Nashville," senior point guard Sarah Costello said.

Costello said the Otahkians expected a better challenge from upstart Murray State (13-15), especially after the Racers beat Southeast just a few days ago. But they weren't very worried about the losing streak they carried into the tournament.

"It was a new beginning, everybody starting 0-0. We forgot about the conference season," Costello said. "We expected a tough game, but we did our part. And the crowd was great."

Southeast's defense smothered the Racers from the start and never really let them in the game.

"I thought that was our best effort, especially on the defensive end, for the entire 40 minutes," Southeast coach B.J. Smith said. "The first 10 or 12 minutes, I felt like we didn't give them any good looks."

The Otahkians, who trailed just once at 3-2, built a 20-9 lead midway through the first half. Their advantage never dipped under eight points the rest of the night.

Southeast led 37-22 at halftime and Murray State got no closer than 14 points in the second half. The Otahkians' biggest advantage was 29 points.

"It was a good game for us," senior guard Kenja White said. "We came out and played like we practiced the last two days. We didn't worry about losing the last two games. We knew it was a new season, just focus on one game at a time."

Costello, Southeast's Copi-Rite player of the game, had 14 points, five assists and two steals.

White scored 16 points, as did junior center Chandra Brown, who also had eight rebounds and three steals. Junior reserve guard Brandi Russia contributed four assists and four steals.

"We came out kicking the first half," said Brown, who on Monday won the OVC's newcomer of the week award for the fourth time this season.

Southeast limited Murray State to 26.1-percent shooting in the first half (six of 23) and the Racers finished at 34.6 percent (18 of 52). They also made just two of 12 3-pointers.

"We definitely picked it up on defense," Costello said. "They like to drive and we wanted to cut them off."

The Otahkians didn't shine offensively, shooting 43.5 percent (27 of 62), including only four of 19 from 3-point range. But that was about the only part of their game Smith was even remotely unhappy with.

"We didn't shoot the ball real well, but overall it was a very good game for us," Smith said. "And the crowd was great. I thought they were really into it."

Senior guard Stacy Holmes led the Racers with 17 points.