OTAHKS LOOK TO BUILD UPON LATEST WIN

Fresh off its first victory in almost a month, Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team will now look to start a winning streak as Ohio Valley Conference play resumes.

The Otahkians, who knocked off Arkansas-Little Rock in overtime Monday night, have a pair of OVC home games this week, beginning with today's 5:30 p.m. contest against Tennessee State.

Saturday afternoon, in a 1 p.m. tipoff, the Otahkians will take on Austin Peay.

"It's a big week for us," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "We really needed that one Monday night. It was a must win. We had to build some confidence. Now hopefully we can build on that and get a streak going."

Southeast, 3-7 overall, will be looking to make up some OVC ground this week. The Otahkians are 0-2 in conference play, having lost road games to league heavyweights Tennessee Tech and Middle Tennessee State in early December.

"We had to play probably the two best teams in the league right off the bat, so I'm not that concerned with us being 0-2," said Arnzen. "If we could get these two this week, we'd be in pretty good shape again."

Prior to Monday's non-conference road victory, the Otahkians had not won since Dec. 7, when they beat Oakland City to snap a six-game losing streak. Southeast had been idle since Dec. 10.

Even though the Otahkians' record is not impressive, Arnzen said, "We'd been struggling, but really, we hadn't. We're not a bad club. We've just played some very good teams and in five of our seven losses, we were right there until the end."

The Otahkians have suffered losses to nationally-ranked Louisiana Tech and Arkansas State, along with strong squads Nevada-Las Vegas, Indiana State, Tennessee Tech and Middle Tennessee.

Southeast lost to Arkansas State by five points, to Tennessee Tech by four points, to Middle Tennessee by four points in overtime and to UNLV by 11 points in a game that was tight until the end. Another narrow setback was a one-point loss to Missouri-Kansas City.

"Our record could certainly be a lot better than it is," Arnzen said.

If the Otahkians are to get a winning streak going this week, they're going to have to do it without the services of leading scorer Paula Corder-King, who suffered a hand injury in a recent practice. She missed Monday's game and will also probably miss the next two contests.

"We'll miss Paula, but other players will have to pick up the slack," said Arnzen.

Freshman Kristy Roherty helped do that Monday, scoring 13 points, including eight in overtime. Pam Iversen also had 13 points while freshman Lori Chase added 10. Yet another freshman, Jennifer Gries, contributed nine points as she started in place of Corder-King.

Iversen is averaging 11.3 points per game, second on the squad behind Corder-King's 14.2 average, which ranks sixth in the OVC. Chase is at 7.9 points a contest to rank third on the squad. Next are Roherty (7.6 ppg) and Lieah Toedte (7.0 ppg).

Tennessee State enters today's game with a 4-5 overall record and a 2-0 OVC mark, having already claimed an upset victory over league power Tennessee-Martin.

The Lady Tigers are led offensively by 6-foot junior Tamara Washington (14.1 ppg), who ranks eighth in the OVC in scoring.

Also hitting double figures for Tennessee State are 5-8 junior Taurus Pyles (12.4 ppg), 5-11 junior Angela Hassell (10.8 ppg) and 5-8 junior Kizzy White (10.8 ppg).

"Washington is a player who tore her ACL against us early last year and missed most of the season. Hassell is also back, but all their other players are new," said Arnzen of the Lady Tigers. "They're not big but they're quick and they're probably the best offensive rebounding team in the conference.

"They'll be a tough club. We'll have our hands full."

Saturday's opponent, Austin Peay, is 4-6 overall and 0-2 in OVC play heading into a game today at Eastern Illinois.