Box Score

Cape Girardeau, Mo. (January 18, 2003) - After being down 13 points at the half, the Southeast Missouri State Otahkian basketball team stormed back in the second half, outscoring Murray State by 26, to cruise to a 13-point victory. Southeast moves to 9-5 (3-1 OVC) while Murray falls to 4-10 (0-3 OVC).

Southeast started out things slow as they fell behind early, 10-2 at the first media timeout. They cut the lead to five at 16-11, but Murray opened it right back up as much as 18 at 36-18 at the six minute mark in the half. The Otahkians closed the lead to as little as nine twice in the half, but went into the locker room down by 13.

At the half, Murray State forward Beth Schnakenberg had 16 points on 7-12 from the field. Leading the way for Southeast was freshman guard Tiffanne Ryan who had nine points at the break.

The second half was an entirely different story. Junior guard Kenja White hit back-to-back threes to open the half to cut the lead to seven. She then hit another long-range bomb at 15:50 to cut the lead to three and force a Lady Racer timeout. Coming out of the timeout, senior guard LaShelle Porter stole the inbounds and made a quick bucket to cut the lead to one. She then stole the next inbounds and passed off to White who hit the jumper to give the Otahks their first lead of the game.

Murray had the lead once more as a couple of free throws put them up by two, but senior forward Lori Chase hit her only three pointer of the game to put the Otahks up for good, as Southeast cruised the rest of the half to the 13-point victory.

Southeast was led by the strong shooting once again from White. The junior from Waukegan hit 7-15 from the field and 3-9 from behind the arc, while being a perfect 6-6 at the line for 23 points on the night. Chase had 19 points and eight rebounds, while junior forward Yashika Sidbury had 13 points and five boards. Junior forward Carina Souza had 11 points and six rebounds, while Ryan had nine points and assists.

Southeast shot 50 percent on the night from the field. The out-rebounded Murray 36-27, but were even in steals and turnovers at nine and 21.

The Otahks next wait till Monday as they play host to the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin. UTM lost tonight on the road to Eastern Illinois, 81-70. They are 5-10 overall and 2-2 in the OVC.