Dec. 6, 2001

Box Score

DEKALB, Ill. - The Southeast Missouri State Otahkian basketball team allowed the Northern Illinois Huskies to gain a 19-point second half advantage before a furious rally came up just a little short as Southeast dropped their second consecutive game, 71-63 on Wednesday night.

Southeast (5-3) built an early 6-2 lead behind four quick points by senior center Pam Iversen. That would, however, be Southeast's last lead of the game. NIU (4-2) used a 23-3 run over the next nine minutes to build a comfortable 25-9 advantage with 7:20 remaining before the intermission. It was at that media timeout that Otahkian head coach Ed Arnzen decided to gamble and put Lori Chase back in the game despite the two early fouls she had picked up.

The move paid off for Southeast as the Otahkians used a 17-4 run over the next five minutes to cut the Huskie lead to only three with 2:46 to play. In the run, Chase scored all seven of her first half points and Southeast connected on all nine of their first half free-throws. Unfortunately, NIU would hit two critical three's to close the first half and led 35-29 at the break.

NIU used that momentum to open the second-half on fire. A 17-4 run over the half's first eight minutes re-opened the huge advantage and put Southeast in a 52-33 hole with 12 minutes to play. Southeast would not give up, however, and fought hard over the game's final 10 minutes.

A 7-2 run got the Otahkians back under 10 with about 7:30 to play and out of a timeout, Veronica Benson would bring Southeast even closer as she hit back-to-back three-pointers to put the NIU lead to 63-55 with 4:00 to play. The Otahks would close within five with just over a minute to play on a Lori Chase free-throw but a second missed free-throw and NIU's clutch shooting sealed the Otahkians fate.

Southeast shot only 33.3% in the first half but improved to 50% in the second frame. NIU shot 47.3% for the game, and was 5-8 from three-point land despite only hitting on 32% of their attempts entering the ball game.

Benson led all scorers with 18 points and nine rebounds. Iversen chipped in 16 points and six boards.

NIU placed four scoeres in double figures with Kristan Knake leading the way with 15.

"We just weren't very sharp tonight," Arnzen said. "At the beginning of each half it seemed like we were just going through the motion and let NIU build a big lead. Then we would play better and get close but the hole was too big to overcome on the road to a good ballclub. Saturday's game will be huge for us to give us a big win before the Christmas break."

Arnzen refers to Southeast's matchup with Samford at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. It will be the Otahks final game before a 25-day layoff for Christmas break. The game will be a part of a doubleheader with the men's team who play North Alabama at 7:00 p.m.