Jan. 12, 2002

Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - With the game tied with 4:02 to play, Morehead State used a 10-0 run over the next two minutes to pull out the 79-70 victory over Southeast Missouri on Saturday night. The loss is the third straight conference home lost for the Otahkians in a week and the first ever win for Morehead State at the Show Me Center in 11 tries.

Southeast scored the first two points of the game but after the game tied at 2-2, Southeast (8-6 overall, 1-3 OVC) would never see the lead the rest of the night, although the game would be tied three times in the second half. Morehead State (12-3, 2-2) jumped out to a 36-28 halftime advantage behind 14 points from Tasha Gales. In that first half, Gales scored her 1000th career point, becoming only the 16th player in MSU history to reach that milestone. Morehead was also able to take advantage of 14 first-half turnovers by turning them into 12 points. The Otahkians were 0-7 from three-point range in the opening frame, and were kept close by 14 points and six boards from Pam Iversen in the half.

Morehead opened up the game in the second half with a 13-5 run that saw three pointers from Travece Turner and Amy Spear and opened the lead to 12 with 14:55 to play.

Southeast would not fold, however, using a 14-4 run over 5:30 to eventually tie the game at 60 apiece on a Lori Chase field goal.

The game was last tied at 64 with 4:02 to play but Morehead would go on that 10-0 run thanks to five points from center Frances Montgomery. The run was capped by a 23-foot three-pointer from Kandi Brown and the air was taken completely out of Southeast.

It looked like Southeast might have an advantage at the free-throw line in the second half when they went into the double bonus following MSU's 10th team foul at the 10:46 mark of the second half. Unfortunately for the Otahkians, they were only able to attempt five free-throws for the remainder of the game.

Another near break came when Gales picked up her fourth foul for Morehead with 8:21 to play. While sitting on the bench, the Othaks were only able to gain a 4-2 advantage in points.

Southeast lost despite outrebounding Morehead, the league's number one team in rebounding margin (+5.5) by a 40-27 margin. Southeast also out-assited the OVC's #1 team (17.93 per game) by a margin of 17-12. Morehead was able to get its season average of points (79) while Southeast lost for only the second time this season when scoring at least 70 points.

"It was very frustrating to be behind and then get that close and not win," Coach Ed Arnzen said. "It takes a lot of energy when you get down that much and we just didn't have enough. We could score when we got the ball inside, but MSU was able to force us into a running game and out guards took some bad shots and didn't get the ball inside to our post players."

Gales led all scores with 22 points. Turner added 10 for MSU and Brown had 1 and five assists. Southeast was led by Iversen who posted season-highs with 20 points and 12 boards. Lori Chase scored 17 and grabbed seven caroms and Veronica Benson added 10.

The win also snapped a seven-game losing streak for Morehead against Southeast.

Southeast will close its four-game home stand with a battle against Tennessee State at 7:00 p.m. on Monday.

Game Notes: Lori Chase hit on 7-7 free-throws it the game, pushing her percentage to 95% in four conference games ... the three-game losing streak is Southeast's first since dropping three at the beginning of the 2000-01 season to Eastern Washington, New Mexico and Lipscomb ... Iversen is now only four blocks away from third place on Southeast's career list and only five rebounds from ninth place on the Southeast all-time list and nine rebounds from seventh place ... the game marked the first time Southeast had been tied or ahead with 5:00 to play and lost the game ... Chase has scored in double figures in 29 of the Othakians last 33 games ... Chase attempted a career-high eight three-point attempts in the game.