Tournament home game chances dim after Othakians' loss

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- The slide continues.

Southeast Missouri State University's women suffered their fourth consecutive loss Thursday, a 79-72 setback to Morehead State that makes the Otahkians' chances even slimmer of earning a home game for the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

The top four finishers in the nine-team OVC play at home in the opening round of the league tourney. Thursday's setback put Southeast (12-10, 4-7) 2 1/2 games behind fourth-place Morehead (16-5, 6-4) and the Lady Eagles have the tie-breaker edge on the Otahkians because they swept the season series.

"It's going to be really difficult to finish in the top four now," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "But we can't worry about that. It's important we come out of this trip with our head up and wanting to play good basketball the rest of the way. We just need to get some confidence going."

The two-game road trip concludes Saturday at Eastern Kentucky.

Southeast junior forward Lori Chase led all scorers with 23 points and is now just six points away from becoming the 13th Otahkian to score 1,000 career points.

Pam Iversen, a senior center who earlier this season reached 1,000 points, added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Otahkians. Veronica Benson had 15 points.

For Morehead, Travece Turner scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures. The Lady Eagles hit 11 of 23 3-point attempts, including three of five by Turner and three of four by Amy Spear, who had 15 points.

The Otahkians' primary problem was a horrendous start that featured a host of turnovers as Morehead raced to an early 14-2 lead, which later became 21-6. After trailing 40-32 at halftime, Southeast battled back. Iversen's basket with 21 seconds left sliced Southeast's deficit to 75-72, but the Lady Eagles hit four straight free throws to hold on.

"Our defensive tactic early was right on target," said Morehead coach Laura Litter, whose squad used a trapping, full-court pressure defense to rattle Southeast early. "Then they settled down and handled it."

Said Arnzen, "We couldn't get through their traps early. They double-teamed us and we knew they would, but they're good at it. We had way too many turnovers early and our offense got disrupted.

"It's tough to get out of a hole like that. The better the opponent, the tougher it us, and Morehead has a good club. But give our kids credit for the way they fought back."

Arnzen had particular praise for freshman walkon Candice Coffey, who has seen little action most of the season and particularly in OVC play. She came off the bench when the Otahkians were struggling and helped spark them. Coffey finished with four points.

"I thought Candice came in and really gave us a lift," Arnzen said. "She's a walkon who hardly ever plays, but she never says a word about it. She just keeps working hard and when we called on her tonight she was ready."

Both teams had with 21 turnovers overall and 14 in the opening half.