OTAHKIANS DROP OVC OPENER, FIFTH STRAIGHT AGAINST TENN. TECH

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A strong surge by Tennessee Tech to start the second half was enough to doom Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team Thursday night.

The Golden Eaglettes, trailing by two at halftime, scored the first seven points of the second half to take control and later held off the Otahkians for a 65-61 victory in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both squads.

Tech, the preseason OVC favorite and the defending league tri-champion, improved to 2-3 overall. Southeast suffered its fifth straight loss and is now 1-5.

Not only did Tech go on a 7-0 run to start the second half, the Eaglettes outscored Southeast 18-4 at the outset of the final 20 minutes to build a 12-point lead that the Otahkians could not fully recover from, even though they did manage to make things interesting late."We missed several shots early in the second half, they got the ball inside to (Diane) Seng and got ahead of us," said Southeast coach Ed Arnzen. "It's hard to play catch-up against a team like that on the road."But our kids played hard. Tech is the best team in the conference, and to come here and play them within four points, our kids have to feel good about themselves, that they can play with anybody. We just have to build on this."Seng and Janet Holt, the Eaglettes' two strong inside players, led Tech offensively with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Seng scored 13 of her points in the second half. Alison Clark added 15 points.

Paula Corder-King paced Southeast with 17 points while freshman Lori Chase came off the bench to score 15 points."Lori did a good job," Arnzen said. "She was able to play well against their two very good inside players."A tightly contested first half that featured several lead changes and ties ended with Southeast on top 33-31.

Freshman Kristy Roherty nailed a 3-pointer with 6:50 left before halftime, putting the Otahkians ahead 24-23. They never trailed again in the opening 20 minutes.

Chase, who had 11 first-half points, scored a conventional three-point play inside with 22 seconds left to give the Otahkians their biggest lead of the opening half at 33-29.

Southeast blistered the nets for 56-percent shooting (14 of 25) in the first half."We played very well in the first half, but our shooting really dropped off in the second half," said Arnzen, whose squad shot just 33 percent (10 of 30) in the final 20 minutes.

Rachael Gobble drilled a 3-pointer 30 seconds into the final half to give Tech a 34-33 lead that it would not relinquish.

Seng, starting to dominate inside, then scored four straight points to put the Eaglettes ahead 38-33.

Tech later opened up a 49-37 lead. Southeast pulled to within 59-55 on a 3-pointer by Corder-King with 2:45 left and the Otahkians also made it 60-56 when Pam Iversen hit one of two free throws with 1:34 remaining.

But Tech scored the game's next four points all on free throws as the Eaglettes were able to hold off Southeast. Corder-King's 3-pointer at the buzzer accounted for the final margin.

The Otahkians will continue on the road for OVC play as they take on Middle Tennessee State Saturday night."That's going to be another tough ballgame for us," said Arnzen. "Middle is not far behind Tech."