Otahks erase deficit, defeat MSU

Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach B.J. Smith has stressed how important it is for the Otahkians to protect their home court as they chase an Ohio Valley Conference championship.

The protection plan, however, wasn't working very well for a good portion of Saturday night's game against Murray State at the Show Me Center. The Racers opened up an 18-point lead midway through the first half and led by 13 at the intermission.

"They really jumped on us early and shot the ball extremely well," Smith said. "The big thing is we just didn't guard anybody. It's not that hard to hit shots when nobody's guarding you."

But the Otahkians tightened their defense after halftime and outscored the Racers 49-23 over the final 20 minutes to post an 82-69 victory.

Southeast improved to 9-5 overall and 3-1 in the OVC. MSU fell to 4-10 and 0-3.

"We can't do anything easy," Smith said, smiling. "But it's a big win for us, to come back like we did. I'm super proud of them. In the second half, that was the best effort we've had.

"We've talked about winning at home if we're going to have a shot at the conference championship. You just can't lose games like this at home. I think we thought we'd just come out and beat them. I don't know if we took them seriously enough at the start."

Kenja White led the Otahkians offensively with 23 points. Lori Chase scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Yashika Sidbury added 13 points while Carina Souza contributed 11 points and six rebounds.

"We didn't play very good on defense or offense in the first half," Souza said. "I just thought we needed to play hard and we would come back."

Smith had plenty of praise for freshman point guard Tiffanne Ryan, who has been running the offense the past several games while Sarah Costello has been out with a foot injury. Ryan dished out nine assists and also scored nine points.

"Tiffanne was phenomenal," Smith said. "She had great composure in the first half and really pushed the ball in the second half."

Ryan said she feels more and more at ease as the season goes along but is anxious for Costello to return to action. Costello was in Australia Saturday to attend her sister's wedding, but she should play Monday night when Southeast hosts Tennessee-Martin.

"I'm definitely getting more comfortable, and it's been a good learning experience while Sarah has been out," Ryan said. "But I'm ready for her to come back."

Beth Schnakenberg paced the Racers with 26 points as she hit 11 of 17 field-goal attempts. Lindsay Cornn added 15 points, and Rebecca Remington had 12.

The Racers had Southeast on its heels from the very start as they scored the game's first eight points. The Otahkians spent much of the rest of the night trying to catch up.

The Racers went ahead 36-18 with just over six minutes left before halftime. Southeast still trailed 46-33 at intermission after watching MSU shoot 57 percent in the opening period (16 of 28). Fourteen Otahkian turnovers also didn't help.

But the second half was a total reversal from the first. Playing sticky defense, Southeast held MSU to 38-percent shooting (eight of 21). And the Otahkians had just seven turnovers while forcing 15.

"We just guarded a lot better in the second half, and we took care of the ball better," Smith said.

White hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the first minute of the second half to pull the Otahkians to within 46-39 and get them going.

White's driving shot with 15:07 left gave the Otahkians their first lead of the game, 53-52.

MSU came back to lead 55-53, but a Chase 3-pointer at the 12:31 mark put Southeast ahead to stay, 56-55. The Otahkians scored the next nine points, completing a 12-0 run that put them up 65-55. The Racers got no closer than five points the rest of the way.

"We weren't worried," Ryan said of the 18-point deficit. "We knew we just had to play up to our potential."