Box Score

Fort Wayne, Ind. (February 13, 2003) - The Southeast Missouri State Women's Basketball team dropped a disheartening game tonight as they fell to the Mastodons of Indiana Purdue, Fort Wayne, 90-87 in overtime. Southeast moves to 14-8 on the season and IPFW moves to 8-16.

It was another slow start for Southeast as the Mastodons jumped out to an early 4-2 lead. Southeast tied it at four at the 17 minute mark, but IPFW again stormed out to a lead this time taking a nine-point advantage at 20-11 at the 11-minute mark. The lead would hover around that mark, but a strong first-half from senior forward Lori Chase including a last-second bucket brought Southeast back within three.

Chase had 15 points in the half and five rebounds on 4-9 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the line. The 15 points took her over the 1,400 point plateau, and into fourth place all alone on the all-time scoring list at Southeast, passing Sherry Mitchell's mark of 1,398.

The Otahks came out and immediately tied the game at 43, shortly thereafter taking a three point lead. The would have that three point lead three more times in the half, with IPFW sticking around and taking leads of their own. The two teams were tied up twice more in the half before the Mastodons took a two point lead on a free-thow from Amy Geralds. However, Chase hit a layup on the other end to tie the game and send it into overtime.

The game was tied in overtime once at 79, but IPFW took a slim lead and held onto it throughout the extra peried thanks to clutch free-throw shooting making 6-9 in the extra frame. Southeast made more baskets than the Mastodons in overtime, but as it was in the game, allowed too many fouls and trips to the line and IPFW capitalized on the mistakes to win the game.

Southeast was led on the night from Chase's 23 point, 10 rebound performance. She now has 1,409 points on her career. Juniors Carina Souza and Kenja White each had 22 and 20 points, respectively and freshman Tiffanne Ryan had 10 poitns on the night. Southeast was 7-19 from behind the arc and the 19 attempts sets a new Southeast record for three-point attempts in a season currently at 479. The team is just 13 made three-pointers away from tying the record for that category in a season.

IPFW had four players in double figures in scoring, but that wasn't the story of the game. For most of the season, Southeast has usually held a 2-1 edge in bench scoring, but the Mastodon bench tonight outscored the Otahk's 30-10. IPFW made 31-42 free-throws as points in the paint and points off turnovers were virtually identical for both teams. Southeast led the game in second-chance points 17-9.

The Otahks shot nearly 50 percent from the field and 80 percent from the line, but couldn't pull out the necessary win tonight. Southeast now looks to this weekend as they head back into OVC action with two very important road games at Murray State this Saturday at 4 p.m. and then Tennessee-Martin next Monday at 7 p.m.