SCRATCH THE 8-BALL? LOSS TO MARTIN FAILS TO HELP OTAHKS' CAUSE

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team dug itself an early hole that the Otahkians never could quite climb out of Monday night.

The result was a disappointing 79-64 loss to Tennessee-Martin in the final home game of the season for the Otahkians.

A crowd of 523 at the Show Me Center saw Southeast fall to 8-17 overall and 5-12 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

UTM, the surprise team in the OVC this year, improved to 14-10 overall and a third-place 11-5 in the league.

The Otahkians, who suffered their fifth loss in the last six games, still were able to remain in eighth place in the 10-team OVC, one-half game ahead of Murray State.

Southeast and Murray (4-12) are battling for the eighth and final spot in the OVC Tournament. The Otahkians have one regular-season game left (Saturday at Eastern Illinois) while the Lady Racers have two games remaining.

The Otahkians are still in pretty good shape as far as making the tournament goes because, in the event of a tie with Murray, they own the tiebreaker edge. But Southeast would likely have to travel to powerhouse Eastern Kentucky for a first-round tourney game, which would be a rugged prospect to say the least.

"It was just a disappointing final home game for us," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "There wasn't a lot of excitement here. I feel like we were never motivated to play for some reason. Consequently it was a very dull game."

At least Southeast senior Jamie Koester -- one of three Otahkians playing their final home game Monday -- was able to finish her home career with a bang.

Koester, who leads the OVC in rebounding and blocked shots, had 18 points and nine rebounds to pace the Otahkians in both categories.

"Jamie had a good game and I'm really happy for her," said Arnzen. "We'll miss her a great deal."

Another Southeast senior, Dana Hawkins, had a solid game off the bench with seven points. The squad's third senior is Jaime Neff, who failed to score.

Rusty Sowers added 12 points for the Otahkians while Tajuana White and Annie Struve both scored 10.

UTM got 23 points from Nichole Lockridge and 19 from Zabrina Harris.

Southeast saw UTM score the game's first four points and the Otahkians never led, although they did manage a few first-half ties.

The Skyhawks led 27-24 at halftime and were able to hold off every Otahkian challenge, primarily thanks to the strong inside play of Lockridge and Harris.

Lockridge scored 19 points in the second half as she hit all nine of her field-goal attempts. Harris had 15 second-half points as she hit seven of 11 shots.

Led by that pair, the Skyhawks shot a sizzling 65 percent in the second half and finished the game at 54 percent.

Southeast shot 53 percent in the second half (43 percent for the game) but simply could not slow down the Skyhawks.

"We had trouble defending their post people," Arnzen said. "Lockridge and Harris wore us out in the second half. They were getting so many easy shots."

After UTM opened up a 45-34 lead early in the second half, the Otahkians battled back to within 55-51. Southeast was still fairly close at 60-54 when a 9-3 run by the Skyhawks pretty much sealed the verdict.

Now the Otahkians will at least try to close the season strong at Eastern Illinois Saturday -- and hope they can squeeze into the conference tournament.

"We've got to try and win that one," said Arnzen. "Murray still has two home games left, so if we don't win, they could still pass us and get in ahead of us."