Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach John Ishee hopes to see today's entire game at Murray State.

That wasn't the case last season, when Ishee was ejected early from the Jan. 26 contest at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky.

Things still worked out well for the Redhawks, who rallied for an 81-74 victory with assistant Chris Harris running the show.

But Ishee would rather not have a repeat performance for the 5:15 p.m. Ohio Valley Conference showdown against the first-place Racers.

"I plan to be out there," said Ishee, who added with a laugh, "I'm on about a 26-game non-technical streak."

Ishee received two technical fouls during the first eight minutes of last year's game, which meant an automatic ejection.

MSU built a 14-point lead midway through the opening period before Southeast stormed back.

"The players and coaches did a great job without me," Ishee said.

Ishee figures it will take all hands on deck for the Redhawks (9-9, 5-3) to knock off the Racers (12-6, 7-1) in a battle between the OVC's two reigning champions.

Southeast is the defending OVC regular-season champ, while MSU captured last year's conference tournament title.

"It's a really interesting matchup," said Ishee, whose squad has won five of its past six games and has moved into a tie for fourth place in the OVC. "We beat them two years ago in the finals of the conference tournament, and last year they won the tournament.

"They're trying to distance themselves from us and we want to stay in the thick of the race."

The contest also will feature two interesting streaks.

Southeast has won 16 straight OVC road games dating back to the 2006-07 season. The Redhawks own the nation's second-longest current conference road winning streak.

MSU is riding a 12-game home winning streak dating back to last season, which is tied for 13th nationally.

The last team to win at the Regional Special Events Center?

Southeast in the game from which Ishee was ejected.

"They play well any place, but they really play well at home," Ishee said.

The Racers struggled in women's basketball for years, but that is no longer the case, which has added to the rivalry between the programs.

The past five meetings over the last two seasons have been decided by seven points or fewer. Southeast won four of those games, the lone loss coming last season at the Show Me Center.

"They're a really big rival of ours and it should be a great game," Southeast senior point guard Tarina Nixon said. "We're looking forward to it."

Southeast will try to slow down one of the nation's highest-scoring teams.

MSU entered the week ranked 12th in the country with an OVC-best average of 75.6 points per game.

The Racers feature the league's top two scorers in 5-foot-10 senior wing Ashley Hayes and 5-8 senior guard Amber Guffey.

Hayes, the reigning OVC player of the year who was picked to repeat that honor, is averaging 20.8 points per game. She entered the week tied for ninth nationally.

Guffey is right behind with a 20.1 average. She entered the week ranked 12th in the nation.

Hayes also is the OVC's No. 2 rebounder with an 8.9 average. In conference play, Hayes is averaging a double-double of 22.1 points and 10 rebounds.

"Hayes is just a really tough matchup," Ishee said. "She's got a first step like a point guard, but she can jump over you like a 6-3 center.

"Guffey is a great scorer and she gets to the foul line a lot [146 times to lead the conference]."

That dynamic duo receives help from 5-8 senior guard Paige Guffey -- Amber's twin sister -- who carries a 13.5 scoring average.

Paige Guffey is the nation's sixth-best free-throw shooter at 92.7 percent. She leads the OVC, with Amber Guffey second (86.3) and Hayes third (85.7).

The Racers top the OVC and rank second nationally in free-throw shooting at 82.3 percent.

Paige Guffey also is second in the conference in 3-point shooting (38.5 percent), behind leader Nixon's 41.1 percent.

Hayes (35.6) and Amber Guffey (35.2) are ninth and 10th in the OVC in 3-point accuracy.

"It's hard to keep one of those three from going off and getting 25 or 30 on you," Ishee said. "They're going to score their points."

MSU also allows its share of points, a league-high 68.4 per outing, which should make for an intriguing matchup against defensive-minded Southeast.

"We've had a great rivalry with them," Ishee said. "There have been some very entertaining games the last two years. I expect this one to be no different."