Southeast women face surprising Gamecocks

~ Redhawks enter tonight's game tied in the OVC standings with host Jacksonville State.

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. -- Jacksonville State has been the biggest surprise so far during the early stages of the Ohio Valley Conference women's basketball race.

Southeast Missouri State's mission in today's 5:30 p.m. game at JSU is to keep the Gamecocks from continuing that trend.

If the Redhawks are able to pull it off, they'll have swept their two-game road trip to Alabama and started off their toughest stretch of the season with a bang.

"We just have to go play hard and compete," Southeast junior wing player Sonya Daugherty said.

The Redhawks (6-5, 2-1 OVC) did that Tuesday night at Samford and came away with an impressive 69-60 victory in a contest that began a stretch featuring six of seven league games on the road.

"It was a great way to start this particular two-game road trip," Southeast coach John Ishee said. "But to complete it, we have to take care of business [today].."

JSU (5-5, 2-1) tied for last place in the 11-team OVC a year ago, and the Gamecocks were picked to finish in the basement this season.

But the Gamecocks have already won half as many conference games as all of last year, when they went 7-22 overall and 4-16 in league play.

JSU won its first two OVC games on the road -- by 13 points against both Samford and Tennessee-Martin -- before suffering its first league defeat Tuesday night, 83-76 to visiting Murray State.

"They've played as well as anybody through the early part of the conference season," Ishee said. "They can really shoot it."

The Gamecocks are making 37.5 percent of their 3-point field-goal attempts.

JSU is led offensively by 6-foot-1 sophomore forward Jolie Efezokhae and 5-8 sophomore guard Eren McMichael. They both average 12.6 points per game.

After beating the team picked to finish second in the OVC behind Southeast -- Samford -- now the Redhawks face the squad slotted for the conference cellar.

But the Redhawks don't believe they'll suffer from any kind of letdown regarding their mental approach.

"We're just going to play them like they're a team ranked at the top," junior point guard Tarina Nixon said.

Said senior center Missy Whitney: "Everybody is gunning for us. We know we'll always get everybody's best shot. We won't have a letdown. We'll come ready to play."

Ishee has no doubt about that.

"We won't have a letdown," he said. "There's no guarantee we'll win, because. ... the second leg of the road trip. ... it will be a really tough game.

"But we'll come ready to play."