OTAHKS COULD REGAIN FIRST PLACE IN OVC

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team has the opportunity to move back into first place in the Ohio Valley Conference tonight.

The Otahkians pulled to within one-half game of the top spot by virtue of Tuesday's thrilling 74-71 comeback victory over Tennessee State.

Middle Tennessee State, tonight's foe in a 5:30 tipoff at the Show Me Center, is the team directly in front of Southeast. So a victory by the Otahkians would vault them ahead of the Lady Raiders and to the head of the OVC class.

"It should be a great game," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "They've got an excellent team and it's two teams who are battling for first place. Hopefully we'll have a good crowd because I know that really helps the players out."

MTSU is 14-6 overall and 10-2 in OVC play. Southeast is 15-6 overall and 10-3 in the league.

The Otahkians very nearly didn't arrive at a true first-place showdown tonight. They needed to score the final seven points Tuesday to upend Tennessee State. Southeast thus improved to 10-0 at home on the season.

"It's always good to play at home, but with nine seconds to go (Tuesday), I was wondering about it," said Arnzen with a laugh.

Freshman center Pam Iversen hit two free throws with five seconds left to put Southeast ahead for good at 72-71. Paula Corder made a pair of foul shots with under a second remaining for the game's final points.

Now the Otahkians set their sights on an MTSU team that won last year's OVC Tournament championship to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.

Jamie Thomatis leads a balanced MTSU offensive attack by averaging 11.4 points per game.

"They play such good defense. They deny you everything," Arnzen said. "It's going to be a real challenge for us to get our guards some good shots."

When Southeast and MTSU met earlier this season in Murfreesboro, Tenn., the Lady Raiders held off a late Otahkian charge to claim an 82-75 victory.

Southeast rallied to close within 65-63 with just over four minutes left but the Otahkians could get no closer as the Lady Raiders pulled away down the stretch.

"We really had a bad first half and we made a good comeback, but we just didn't have enough to pull ahead," said Arnzen. "Hopefully playing at home will be a big lift for us."

While tonight's winner will own first place in the OVC, things will certainly be far from decided in the league race.

Third-place Tennessee Tech, at 9-3, is just a half-game behind Southeast and one game behind MTSU. Fourth-place Tennessee-Martin, at 9-4, is only another half-game back.

And fifth-place Eastern Kentucky, at 8-5, is still very much in the thick of things, although the Lady Colonels' title hopes were hampered by Tuesday's surprising loss to Murray State.

"The race is still so wide open, anything can happen," said Arnzen. "We're happy to be a part of it."

Southeast's next victory would tie the team record for wins in a season since the Otahkians made the move up to Division I eight years ago. The Otahks went 16-12 in 1991-92 -- their first Division I season -- and 16-11 in 1993-94.

Tuesday's triumph gave the Otahkians their most-ever OVC wins in a season. They had previously won nine league games twice.