RECOVERED: IVERSEN READY TO HELP SE AFTER KNEE SURGERY

When Pam Iversen went down with a knee injury late last season, so pretty much went Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball campaign with her.

This year, Iversen expects to return to pre-injury form -- and hopefully help lead the Otahkians to a much improved record and maybe even more.

"I think we have a good shot at winning the conference," she said during the Otahkians' media day at the Show Me Center Tuesday afternoon. "We have a lot of depth and a lot of height."

Iversen suffered a torn ACL early during a Feb. 3 game against Tennessee State. At the time, the Otahkians were surging, having posted three straight victories to climb into contention for an upper-division finish in the Ohio Valley Conference.

But, without Iversen, the Otahkians went on to not only lose to Tennessee State but they also dropped their next four games and wound up winning only two of their final nine contests.

It all added up to an 11-17 overall record and a 7-11 OVC mark, good for just seventh place in the league.

"When Pam blew her knee out, it really hurt us," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen, whose squad opens the regular season Friday at home against Missouri Baptist. "She makes a huge difference, and not just as a physical presence. She adds a lot of leadership to the club. A lot of our kids look up to her.

"She's not 100 percent yet, but hopefully she'll get back to the point she was before the injury. She's a big key to our season."

Iversen, a 6-foot-2 junior center, has been a fixture in the Southeast lineup ever since she arrived in Cape Girardeau from Denison, Iowa, three years ago.

As a freshmen, Iversen started all 28 Southeast games and averaged 11.7 points and 7.8 rebounds in helping lead the Otahkians to their best-ever Division I season, a 19-9 record and a fourth-place OVC finish.

Last year, before the injury, Iversen averaged 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds while playing in 20 games.

"When Pam is healthy, I think she's one of the dominant players in the league," Arnzen said. "She's had a very good first two seasons here."

Iversen termed her injury last season "extremely frustrating." She also uses those words to describe the tedious rehabilitation process she went through after undergoing reconstructive surgery.

"I've been doing rehab for the last seven months and it was very painful at first, but I just got used to it," she said. "I just took it one day at a time and tried to get better every day."

Which is what she continues to do as her health slowly but surely rounds back into form. Iversen has been suffering from tendonitis in the knee, which is somewhat common following major surgery. She played very little in Southeast's first exhibition game but played a lot more in the second and will be in the starting lineup for Friday's regular-season opener.

"My knee is still a little sore, but it's not bad. It's getting better," she said. "I'm working as hard as I can, but it's coming along slow. I just have to keep at it."

Arnzen knows how much a healthy Iversen will mean to the Otahkians' chances of making a run at the OVC title. Likewise, while not wanting to draw attention to herself, the personable Iversen flashed a grin and agreed with her coach.

"Being healthy, 100 percent, will be extremely good, for me and the team," she said. "But I just want to work around everybody else and try to help us do well."