OTAHKS' OVC TOURNEY PLANS HIT SNAG AGAINST MURRAY ST.

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team entered Saturday night's game with Murray State needing a win to all but clinch a berth in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

But Murray used a late 3-pointer to surprise Southeast 66-65 at the Show Me Center, meaning now the Otahkians still must scratch and claw in order to get into the league tourney.

The top eight finishers in the 10-team conference earn tournament berths. Southeast (8-16 overall, 5-11 OVC) remained in eighth place, but now Murray (5-18, 4-11) is just one-half game behind the Otahkians and still very much in the chase.

Southeast has two regular-season games remaining -- Monday night at home against Tennessee-Martin and next Saturday at Eastern Illinois.

Murray has three regular-season contests left.

"It's a really disappointing loss. That just deflates you," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "We could have just about nailed down a spot in the tournament and I was thinking that we could move up and have a shot at fifth place.

"But now we've got a lot of work still left to do. Murray will have to win another game, but they could do that. So we've got to win at least another game and we've got two tough opponents left."

Freshman center Annie Struve scored on a follow shot and added the free throw after being fouled to give the Otahkians a 65-63 lead with only 10 seconds left.

But Murray's Misty Pierceall buried a 3-pointer from the right side with only two seconds remaining to put the Lady Racers back on top. It was Pierceall's lone basket of the game.

Southeast then tried a long pass that was intercepted as the buzzer sounded.

"She (Pierceall) has nine 3-pointers all season and five have come against Southeast, including four the first time we played them (a Southeast win)," said Arnzen. "We were in a man defense but we had a blown assignment and left her open.

"We knew she was a shooter and we needed to be right on her."

Struve and Jamie Koester led the Otahkians offensively with 17 points apiece. Koester also pulled down 10 rebounds and had six assists.

Tajuana White added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Otahkians.

Murray got 22 points and 10 rebounds from Shonta Hunt. Danelle Watts scored 19 points and Sarah Higgins had 16.

"I just thought we didn't work very hard tonight," Arnzen said. "I thought if we could get on Murray early, we could control the game. But we didn't and I thought they controlled most of the game.

"We were fortunate to have a chance to win at the end."

The Lady Racers scored the last four points of the first half to go ahead 28-24 at the intermission.

Murray went up by seven points twice early in the second half but Southeast regained the lead on White's basket that made it 50-49 with just over seven minutes left.

The lead changed hands several times after that, but Murray appeared to have control in the late going.

But, holding a three-point lead, the Lady Racers committed two straight turnovers.

Koester's layup with 51 seconds left pulled Southeast to within 63-62.

Struve then gave the Otahkians a two-point lead when she rebounded White's miss, scored and was fouled.

But Struve's heroics went for naught when Pierceall nailed her game-winning 3-pointer.