OTAHKS SEE HELP ON THE HORIZON AFTER 8-19 SEASON

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team improved a little bit this season, winning three more games than it did the year before and qualifying for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

And Otahkian coach Ed Arnzen -- armed with one of his best recruiting classes in a while -- will be looking for that upward trend to continue next season.

"I think we will be bringing in some talented players who will help us," said Arnzen. "Add those to the players we have coming back and I'm optimistic about the future."

The Otahkians, who finished 5-21 and in last place in the OVC two years ago, improved to 8-19 overall and 5-13 in the OVC this season as they made the OVC Tournament by finishing eighth in the 10-team league.

Southeast's season came to a close last week as Eastern Kentucky prevailed 92-75 in the opening round of the conference tourney.

"We went into the season with three main goals: to make the (OVC) playoffs, play hard and improve," Arnzen said. "Although we hit a little snag toward the end of the season, I felt like we did improve. And we played hard."

Southeast loses three seniors off this year's team, the most notable being guard/forward Jamie Koester, the team's leading scorer and rebounder the past two seasons.

Koester averaged 12.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game this year. She led the OVC in rebounding and blocked shots to earn second-team all-conference honors.

"We're really going to miss Jamie,," Arnzen said. "She just played so hard every night. She was a real pleasure to coach."

The other seniors were reserves Dana Hawkins (4.9 ppg) and Jaime Neff (2.6 ppg).

After Koester, the next-leading scorers this season were a pair of junior-college transfers, junior guard Rusty Sowers (10.5 ppg) and junior forward Tajuana White (8.8 ppg), who was also the squad's second-leading rebounder at 5.2 per contest.

Sophomore point guard Moneik Campbell averaged 7.8 points per game and led the team in assists with 86.

Redshirt freshman center Annie Struve (6.5 ppg) as she and sophomore ChyAnne Kapitzke (4.6 ppg) split time in the middle.

Junior Shauna Cook (3.9 ppg) became more and more of a contributor toward the end of the campaign and she had one of the season's overall highlights when she poured in 31 points during a big win at Murray State.

Junior Sherry Cook (1.2 ppg) -- Shauna's twin sister -- contributed minutes off the bench, as did freshman Kimberly Nicholson (1.2 ppg), who demonstrated considerable athletic ability and could be a key player in the future.

While Arnzen liked the character of his team, calling them great representatives of the university, he knows the Otahkians will need better talent in order to start turning around the record of the past two seasons.

Toward that end, Arnzen is already excited about next season. In addition to the returnees, he'll have at least four new players who will be counted on for immediate help, including three who signed early.

One player, 6-foot-4 center Allison Iversen, was redshirted this year after transferring from junior college.

Pam Iversen -- Allison's sister -- will come in as Southeast's most celebrated recruit ever, according to Arnzen. Pam is a 6-3 senior forward/center at Dennison High School in Iowa who has helped lead her team to the Iowa state final four and was also heavily recruited by Missouri among other major Division I programs.

"Pam is a top 70 player in the United States on some recruiting lists," said Arnzen. "She's the highest rated player we've ever signed. I would hope she would come in and give us a quality inside player along with Allison."

Paula Corder, a 5-10 guard/forward at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, is a deadly 3-point shooter who is averaging more than 20 points per game for the Lady Raiders and earned third-team juco All-American honors last year.

Reagan Hughston is a 6-1 forward at West Plains High School who is the top player for one of Missouri's top Class 4A teams.

Arnzen has three more scholarships available and he's hopeful of signing at least two more guards.

Of his new players for next season, Arnzen said, "They've certainly got size, which we haven't had in long time, and a 3-point shooter (Corder), which we haven't had in a while. I think they should help us."