OTAHKS WANT TO GIVE EIU BLAST FROM PAST

Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen hopes his team has some special incentive to play well today when Eastern Illinois visits the Show Me Center in Ohio Valley Conference action.

The Otahkians' 1990-91 squad that finished as the NCAA Division II national runner-up will be honored during halftime of tonight's men's game and Arnzen would like nothing better than for his squad to perform well in front of the school's best-ever women's team.

"We're really looking forward to having them back here," said Arnzen, who is in his 18th season as the Otahkians' coach. "I would like to perform well for ourselves tonight, but also well for them."

Ten years ago, Southeast's last Division II squad went 31-4 and, playing in front of a packed Show Me Center, lost to North Dakota State 81-74 in the national championship game.

"That was a special season for everybody involved with the program," Arnzen said.

This season's Otahkians won't reach that level of excellence, but they have been solid nonetheless as they head into the final three games of the regular-season, which will all be played at home.

Southeast is 13-10 overall and 8-5 in OVC play, which is good for fourth place in the nine-team league.

The Otahkians have already assured themselves of a home game for the first round of the conference tournament because they can finish no worse than tied for fourth with Tennessee-Martin and would own the tie-breaker over the Skyhawks.

But Arnzen is still hopeful that the Otahkians can end up in third place, which could be important because it would likely mean being on the other side of the league tourney bracket from powerful Tennessee Tech, which is closing in on the OVC title.

Southeast trails third-place Austin Peay by one-half game and the teams are tied on the loss side. If the Otahkians can win their last three contests -- which will be difficult since second-place Eastern Kentucky is among the remaining foes -- then they will definitely get the No. 3 seed for the tourney because they would own the tie-breaker with Austin Peay.

"What we're thinking is to win all three," said Arnzen. "That will be difficult. You have to take them one game at a time, but I think it can be done."

Today's opponent, Eastern Illinois, is 6-18 overall and a last-place 2-11 in OVC play. But the Lady Panthers nearly upset Tennessee Tech Monday and they still have an opportunity to qualify for the conference tourney since eight of the nine teams make it.

"We had trouble with them last time (Southeast won 77-71 in Charleston, Ill., on Jan. 20) and they just gave Tennessee Tech a great game," Arnzen said. "There is nobody in our league that we can afford to take lightly."

The Lady Panthers have three double-figure scorers in senior guard Renee Schaul (14.4 ppg), freshman center Pam O'Connor (13.3 ppg) and freshman guard Lauren Dailey (10.1 ppg).

Southeast is led by sophomore forward Lori Chase (15.1 ppg). She is seventh in the OVC in scoring, eighth in rebounding (6.7) and fifth in free-throw percentage (84.9).

Junior guard Veronica Benson is the Otahkians' other double-figure scorer (11.8 ppg) while junior center Pam Iversen (9.7 ppg) and sophomore point guard LaShelle Porter (9.6 ppg) are not far behind.

Iversen is fifth in the OVC in rebounding (7.7) and second in field-goal percentage (62.9).