Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team to host second-place Eastern Illinois

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team continues its early Ohio Valley Conference schedule Saturday at home against the league's top squad over the past several years.

Eastern Illinois, one of two teams without an OVC loss so far this season, visits the Show Me Center for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff.

The Redhawks conclude a stretch that has them playing five of their first six conference games at home Monday against SIU-Edwardsville in a 7 p.m. start.

"No question it's a really big homestand for us," said first-year Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler, whose squad is coming off Saturday's 52-37 loss at Eastern Kentucky. "You've got to play well at home. It's something we've talked about."

Southeast (4-13, 1-3) has played fairly well at home so far, splitting six Show Me Center games. But the Redhawks will face a major challenge when they try to pull off an upset against EIU (11-4, 2-0).

The Panthers entered this season with the OVC's top overall (84-46) and conference (59-15) records during the previous four years. They have one OVC regular-season title during that span while never finishing worse than third.

"They've got a really good program," Margenthaler said.

EIU sports the OVC's best overall record so far this season, including nonconference victories at Xavier of the Atlantic 10 Conference and over three Missouri Valley Conference squads: Bradley, Illinois State and Indiana State. The Panthers own a four-game winning streak.

The Panthers are led by junior point guard Ta'Kenya Nixon, among the OVC's premier players since she won the league's freshman of the year award in 2009-10. She already has been a two-time first-team all-conference selection.

Nixon is averaging 14.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.8 steals to rank among the OVC leaders in all four categories.

Mariah King, a 6-foot-2 junior forward who was a second-team all-OVC pick last season, is averaging 13.7 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds.

EIU leads the OVC in scoring margin at 12 points per game. They are second in scoring offense (75.7) and first in scoring defense (59.7) while ranking first in field-goal percentage (42.1), second in field-goal percentage defense (35.3) and first in rebounding margin (plus 8).

"They're awfully good. They've got good guard play, nice size down low. They just do a lot of nice things," Margenthaler said. "We'll have to definitely be at our best."