OTAHKS FACE TOUGH TASK -- MISSOURI

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team goes from the frying pan right into the fire.

The Otahkians, who opened the season on Saturday with a 71-56 home loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, now face a much greater challenge tonight when they take on Missouri in a 7 o'clock tipoff in Columbia.

Missouri, a member of the Big 12 Conference, is off to a 2-0 start, with a lopsided win over Missouri-Rolla and a 10-point victory over Illinois State.

"It's going to be a very difficult game for us," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "But two years ago we went up there and played them to the wire."

That wasn't the case last season when Southeast suffered a 103-65 loss to Missouri at the Show Me Center.

"They embarrassed us here last year," said Arnzen. "I didn't feel like we played hard at all."

Despite the Otahkians struggling with their shooting in the season opener (hitting only 28 percent), Arnzen thought his team at least played hard, which was a positive sign.

"That was a bright spot," he said. "But we're really concerned about our post defense. It has to be much better because we'll see a lot of good posts. And turnovers the last couple of years have been really costly."

Poor post defense would certainly hurt tonight because Missouri has a strong inside player in Kiesha Bonds, a 6-foot-1 center who is averaging 17 points and 13 rebounds per game so far.

Mizzou's leading scorer is 5-10 sophomore Julie Helm, last year's Big 12 Freshman of the Year who averages 21 points.

"Bonds is a really strong inside player and Helm is very good," Arnzen said. "Those two are outstanding. It will be very difficult for us to match up with them. The other players are not bad, but these two kids are good enough to just take over a game."

In addition to defending Bonds and Helm, a concern for Arnzen is Mizzou's pressure defense.

"We have to be able to handle that," he said. "We still had too many turnovers the other night, but I thought we handled the ball better in the second half."

Arnzen realizes a win tonight would be a big upset. He's not ruling it out, but even if the Otahkians lose, he'll be looking for improvement.

"We want to try and improve every game," he said. "That's our goal."

* Arnzen has completed his recruiting during the fall signing period by signing Paula Corder to a national letter of intent.

Corder, a 5-foot-10 guard/forward from Ellington, signed with the Otahkians out of high school two years ago but opted instead to attend Three Rivers Community College.

As a freshman last year at TRCC, Corder averaged 20 points and six rebounds per game in earning third-team junior-college All-American honors. She hit 83 three-pointers last season.

"When she signed here originally, I think she might have been overwhelmed by the size of our university and she opted to go back closer to home," said Arnzen. "I think she has matured as a player and we welcome her back. She is a very good three-point shooter, which we desperately need."