~ Redhawks will play six of their next seven conference games away from home.

The toughest stretch of the season for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team begins today in Birmingham, Ala.

Southeast coach John Ishee hopes the Redhawks can keep their heads above water in order to set themselves up for a strong run at a third straight Ohio Valley Conference title.

Southeast (5-5, 1-1 OVC) faces Samford (6-3, 0-1) in a 5:30 p.m. tipoff today, which marks the start of six of its next seven league games on the road.

"It's a brutal stretch for us," Ishee said.

Then he joked, "I don't know who made up the schedule at the conference office, but they must have something against us."

The Redhawks are 1-3 on the road this season and have lost their last three in a row away from the Show Me Center.

"You go into every game hoping and expecting to win, but this is one of those things where you just hope you come out of it in fairly decent shape," Ishee said. "We can still do a lot of special things this year and get to where we want to be. We just have to continue to grow as a team."

Ishee figures part of allowing the Redhawks to continue growing is getting them back to full strength.

Southeast should be closer to that than it has been in a while today as senior center Missy Whitney, the OVC preseason player of the year, is expected to log at least a few minutes.

Whitney, averaging 12.5 points and a team-high six rebounds per game, missed Southeast's first two OVC games after suffering a foot injury Dec. 2 at Purdue.

"Hopefully Missy can start playing on this trip, and hopefully she'll be back at close to 100 percent before too long," Ishee said. "We need her on the floor."

The Redhawks could also use junior wing Sonya Daugherty on the floor.

Daugherty, averaging a team-high 14.8 points and 5.2 rebounds, did not play during Southeast's Dec. 8 OVC home victory over Tennessee Tech because of what Ishee termed "an internal issue."

Ishee met with Daugherty the following Monday, and she returned to practice later that day. She is expected to see action today.

Southeast, which lost its OVC opener Dec. 6 at home against Tennessee State, will need a full deck in order to beat Samford.

The Bulldogs were expected to be Southeast's chief conference threat, having been picked second in the OVC's preseason poll, behind the No. 1 Redhawks.

Samford stumbled in its league opener, falling at home to in-state rival Jacksonville State, but the Bulldogs had by far the OVC's most impressive nonconference results.

The Bulldogs own wins over Missouri of the Big 12 Conference and Alabama of the Southeastern Conference. They also played nationally ranked George Washington to the wire before falling by seven points.

"They'll be champing at the bit, after losing their first conference game at home," Ishee said.

The Bulldogs returned one of the OVC's top players in first-team all-conference forward Alex Munday, a 6-foot senior who averaged 14 points per game last year.

But Munday has been upstaged so far by a pair of freshmen.

Emily London, a 5-7 guard, leads Samford with a 10.4 scoring average, while 6-2 center Savannah Hill is averaging 9.9 points and a team-leading 4.7 rebounds.

Hill is the OVC's top 3-point shooter at 54.2 percent (13-of-24), while London is hitting a solid 41 percent (13-of-32).

Munday and Taryn Towns, a returning 5-8 senior guard, are tied for third on the squad with nine-point scoring marks.