Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team and SIUE meet in first-place showdown

It's been exactly three months since the Ohio Valley Conference's coaches and sports information directors tabbed the SIU Edwardsville women's basketball team as the favorite to claim the conference title in the preseason poll, so it's not too much of a surprise that the Cougars sit atop the league's standings with a 5-1 record.

When that poll was released on Oct. 20 there probably were few that expected that tonight's 8 p.m. contest between SIUE and Southeast Missouri State would feature the two teams leading the OVC.

The Redhawks, picked last by far with just 33 points, have worked their way to a 5-1 start in conference and are currently in a first-place tie with the Cougars under first-year coach Rekha Patterson. They face SIUE at the Vadalabene Center in Edwardsville, Illinois, in a game that's nationally televised by the American Sports Network and will be aired locally on MyTV 49 WKDA.

"I don't know what my expectations were as far as our record goes," Patterson said during the OVC's first media teleconference of the season on Tuesday. "I just wanted to make sure that I was giving my players my best so that they could give me their best and we would live with the results of that effort. But no, I had no idea we would be at 5-1. There's a lot of basketball left, so we're just going to continue to work everyday to be our best and hopefully we can continue to have those results of wins."

SIUE coach Paula Buscher, whose team is 10-9 overall and on a two-game win streak, echoed similar sentiments when asked about her expectations for her team.

"I've got to be honest, I didn't even look ahead that far," Buscher said when asked if she thought this is where her team would be at six games into the conference season. "I think we're at a good place. I think there's so much basketball yet to be played, and I think this is a big game tomorrow, but it's not the only big game that we're going to see coming down the line.

"I think the biggest positive in the OVC is I think there's no clear cut top and bottom. I think if you look at games -- and sometimes the final score may be a little different because people had to foul at the end or whatever the case is -- but I think from top to bottom we're all right there. If you don't show up on any given night someone's going to knock you off. So I guess to answer the question, I like where we are, I think it's a good place, but it's not really where we are today. It's, 'What are we going to do moving forward from here on out?'"

Southeast is coming off a 60-57 road victory over Tennessee Tech. The Redhawks trailed by double-figures with less than four minutes remaining and took their first lead of the game with 8 seconds left and hung on for their second consecutive win.

Southeast's only conference loss came in similar fashion, with Eastern Kentucky mounting a comeback in the final few minutes and taking its first lead with 15 seconds left in the Redhawks' 56-55 loss on Jan. 9. They bounced back with wins over Jacksonville State and TTU.

"You know, we are very fortunate in that we get a lot of media coverage here, and so it's a little different in the sense that people recognize who they are and our fans are talking about the program and how hard the young ladies are playing," Patterson said when asked how her team's handling the success. "We've had to address that and address that we're just trying to be better each game, trying to get better. Whether we win or lose we have to come back in and get better and get prepared for the next opponent, who's going to be really tough, and so we just try to keep a level head and try to realize there's a lot of basketball to be played and a lot of things can happen. Just game by game, trying to be 1-0 today."

SIUE's lone conference loss also came on Jan. 9, a 73-61 Tennessee State victory. The Cougars have since beaten Morehead State (90-81) and EKU (89-74).

OVC Preseason Player of the Year Shronda Butts leads the league with 21.3 points per game. She's averaging a conference-best 26 ppg through the first six OVC games.

"Butts will be a handful," Patterson said. "I've been an assistant coach at a lot of different places and there are a lot of really good one-on-one guards in this league, and she's one of the best. We're going to have our hands full. Obviously no one's going to stop her, but the thing that you have to be aware of is if you focus all your attention on her they've got other players who are capable of scoring lots of points."

Forward Gwen Adams is averaging 12.8 points and 5.2 rebounds in conference action. She's knocked down 66 of 79 free-throw attempts on the season (28 of 32 in OVC). Butts is shooting 79.3 percent from the charity stripe on the season, knocking down 107 of 135 attempts. She's 38 of 47 in conference.

CoCo Moore and Donshel Beck are each shooting 50 percent against OVC opponents. Moore, a 5-foot-7 guard, averages 7.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists through six conference games.

Beck is averaging 9.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in the OVC.

Guard Lauren White averages 7.2 points and 6.0 rebounds and Sidney Smith averages 9.0 points and is shooting 47.1 percent from 3-point range in conference. Smith's drained 33 3s on the season, with 16 coming in the last six games.

Butts averages 4.8 assists with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.1. Southeasts Bri Mitchell and Adriana Murphy have assist-to-turnover ratios of 2.8 and 2.2, respectively.

"I think we're still evolving, I really do," Buscher said. "I think the last maybe three games, maybe four, you've seen us offensively maybe score a few more points, but getting more people involved. Â… Shronda's going to get noticed for her offensive abilities and her ability to score not only from the 3, but also off the bounce, but I think the piece of her game that is so valuable to the rest of us is she's got a very high basketball IQ and she can hit other people. She sees the floor, she gets a lot of assists, she gets other people involved, and I think as of recently we're getting more people involved on the offensive end and I think we're getting a little bit better, at times, defensively. That's one of the areas I think we need to continue to improve in as well."