Jan. 14, 2002

Box Score

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.- Southeast Missouri overcame a nine-point Tennessee State lead and outscored the Lady Tigers 46-18 in the second half to claim a much-needed Ohio Valley Conference victory, 77-53, on Monday night at the Show Me Center. Southeast was led by junior forward Lori Chase who scored a season-high 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while hitting 9-14 from the field and 12-15 from the free-throw line.

Southeast (9-6 overall, 2-3 OVC) jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the game's first five minutes and led the majority of the first half. Tennessee State (2-11, 1-4) would battle back to tie the game at 24 with 6:52 remaining before the half. The Lady Tigers then used a 11-2 run over the next six minutes to take a nine-point advantage with only 54 seconds left. More impressively, State made the fun with star forward LaRissa Thomas saddled with two fouls on the bench during the run.

Southeast looked like it would let its fourth straight home game slip away before Chase went to work. With 17 seconds remaining before the half, Chase converted on a three-point play to pull Southeast within six before Tennesse State threw a pass that sailed way out of bounds and gave the Otahks the ball back right under their own goal. Following a Tiffany Melis missed three-pointer and a TSU rebound, Chase would steal the ball from Latoya Clay and get a layup right before the buzzer expired to cut the TSU advantage to only four, 35-31, at the break.

Chase started the second half with a bucket and the comeback was almost complete. Whatever State did right in the first half they had no answer for in the game's second frame. TSU shot a mere 24% in the game's second 20 minutes as Southeast gained the lead at the 15:49 mark and never looked back. State was able to cut the lead to 43-42 with only 12 minutes to play but Southeast used runs of 8-0 and 11-0 over the next 10 minutes to put the game away. TSU was held to a mere 18 points in the second frame as Southeast scored 46 in the second half.

Thomas, the league's number two scorer (20.8) and leading rebounder (8.9) was limited to only 10 points and two rebounds on the night in 22 minutes of play as she battled foul trouble. After tallying only six points at half, Thomas did not record her first field goal of the second frame until the 8:40 mark.

Chase led all players with 31 points and 11 rebounds. She hit an impressive 12-15 from the free-throw line, similiar to a performance she recorded last season against TSU. Last year, Chase scored a career-high 35 points while hitting 23-25 free throws in the Southeast 95-84 victory. The 23 made free throws set an OVC record and the attempts and makes were both Southeast single game marks.

LaShelle Porter added 14 points, four rebounds and four assists for Southeast.

State was led by 10 each from Thomas and Clay.

Southeast was able to outrebound the league's number one rebounding team by a margin of 40-33.

"This was a game we had to win," Southeast head coach Ed Arnzen said after the game. "When you play a team you think you should beat you need to come out and take control right away but we didn't do that. We had to scramble at the end of the first half and Lori's five points at the end were huge for us. We didn't play expectionally well but we won. I thought LaShelle did run the show better tonight and was able to get the ball to Lori who scored or got fouled every time she touched the ball. This is a big boost for our team as we were starting to doubt ourselves after three straight loses."

"We wanted to come out and pick up the intensity tonight," Chase said. "This win was a big pick me up, we definitely need this one."

Southeast will now start a two-game roadtrip as it travels to Martin, Tenn. to battle UT-Martin on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Game Notes: Southeast defeated Tennessee State for the sixth time in the last seven meetings between the teams ... it was the fifth straight win for Southeast over TSU at the Show Me Center ... sophomore center Tisa Thomas missed the game as she was attending a funeral ... Southeast is now 9-2 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 7-2 this year when outrebounding their opponent ... Chase recorded her second double-double of the year and 12th game in double figures ... Pam Iversen is now only 20 points away from becoming the 12th Otahkian to record 1,000 points in a playing career, she also only needs three rebounds to take over sole possesion on 9th place on the Southeast all-time rebounding list and seven rebounds to take over sole possession of 7th place ... Southeast tied its season-high for free throws made with 22 ... the 18 second half points for TSU was a season-low for an Otahkian opponent eclipsing the 22 points Samford scored on December 8 ... the win allowed Southeast to avoid its first four-game losing streak at the Show Me Center since January of 1997.