Nov. 30, 2001

Box Score

COLUMBIA, Mo.- The Southeast Missouri State Otahkians were able to shut down the post players of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to win 70-57 in the opening round of the Unilever Lady Tiger Tournament at the University of Missouri on Friday.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-2) came out hot and got the advantage early scoring the first four points of the game and holding Southeast (5-1) without a bucket for the games first three and a half minutes. The Otahkians would tie the game at 6-6 and the teams were deadlocked again at 10-10. Southeast then used a 12-2 run that saw them grab a 20-12 lead with 7:05 to play.

The Otahks would open up a lead as large as 13, before the Islanders ShaKayla Hawkins hit A&M's lone three pointer of the first half to start a Corpus Christi run that closed the halftime lead to nine at 34-25.

The Otahkian match-up zone limited the number of good looks the Islanders got in the first half, as the Southeast defense limited A&M to only 32.4% shooting and 1-8 from behind the three-point arc. On the other end, Southeast pounded the ball down low to Pam Iversen and Tisa Thomas, as the center combination combined for 14 first-half points.

Southeast started the second half strong when Lori Chase knocked down her second three of the game which ignited a 15-0 Otahkian lead to open the half. In the run Southeast got three-pointers from Christine Rathke, Veronica Benson and another from Chase to lead 49-25 with 13:52 remaining in the game.

Corpus Christi would use a 9-0 run to get within 13 points with just over 10 minutes to play but that would be as close as the Islanders would get the rest of the way, until a Ann Hartzell basket at the buzzer made the final score 13 again at 70-57.

"We're a scrappy ball club," Head Coach Ed Arnzen said. "We started out slow to begin with, but built up a nice lead toward the end of the first half. We jumped on top in the second period and went out strong. This was Rathke's first start of the season and she came out to lead the team in scoring. Chase came off the bench with four big threes that helped boost our game. She is an excellent player and played a nice game."

Rathke, in her second career start, led all scorers with 18 points. She also had five rebounds and four assists. In her only other career start she scored 20 points at Austin Peay last season.

Chase scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds. She knocked down 4-4 three-pointers, a career-high. She made only four threes all of last season.

Veronica Benson grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds for Southeast.

Kristin Rogers led Corpus Christi with 12 points, all of which came in the first half. Rogers got in foul trouble early in the second half and never got in the flow of the game.

Southeast held the Islanders to only 32.4% shooting and 5-22 from three-point range. The Otahkians, on the other hand, shot 48.3% from the field and knocked down a season-high 10 three pointers on 17 attempts.

The 5-1 start is the best for Southeast since joining Division I basketball 10 years ago.

Southeast is now 5-0 on the season when scoring at least 70 points.

The Otahkians will meet host Missouri in Saturday's championship game at 8:00 p.m.