Complete 2004 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Bracket
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Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
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Cape Girardeau, Mo. (Feb. 29, 2004)-Southeast Missouri women's hoops heads into the post-season as the No. 4 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference, hosting No. 5 Murray State this Tuesday March 2 at the Show Me Center. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.

Scouting Southeast...The Otahks saw its seven-game winning streak come to a halt Thursday night as they fell to the Lady Racers of Murray State, 64-59, and then suffered another disappointing loss on Saturday, falling the Tennessee-Martin, 78-75 in overtime.

In the squad's last contest, the Otahks held the 41-26 edge going into halftime, but UTM came out in the second half to outscore the Otahkians 37-22. The Skyhawks went on a 16-4 run over the final 5:58 to tie the game. Then at the buzzer, freshman Andrieka Jackson hit the bucket to send the game into extra minutes. In overtime, senior guard Yashika nailed the trey for Southeast with 37 seconds to play, but Jackson gave the Skyhawks the lead for good when she sank a free throw with 23 seconds remaining. Teammate Julie Young hit two more to seal the victory, as the Otahks three-pointer didn't fall at the buzzer.

A Kenja White-Sami Jo Cotton duo is the leading the coach Smith's squad on the season as they both average 11 points per outing. Forwards Sidbury and Brown average ten per outing. Dishing out 230 assists thus far over her career, senior Sarah Costello now ranks 10th in school history in career assists in only two seasons with the Otahks, while ranking first in the OVC on the season. As a squad, Southeast leads the conference in both steals per game (10.5) and three-point field goals made per game (7.2), and turnover margin (+2.74).

Scouting Murray State...The Lady Racers come into the game on a four game winning streak after defeating SEMO on Thursday and going on to post a decisive 84-53 victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

The Lady Racers are coming off an extremely impressive win, which saw them set new school single-game records with 17 three-point baskets and 37 trey attempts in the contest. The squad also set season-highs with 84 points, 23 assists and a 31-point win margin, while also tying their season-high with 31 baskets. MSU scored the first 18 points of the game en route to taking a 23-2 lead with 11:57 to play in the first half. The Cats fought back, outscoring the MSU 18-3 over the next eight minutes to cut the lead to six, but it was Murray on top 39-27 at the break, going on to post the victory. Megan Fuqua, who netted 24 points to hurt the Otahks on Thursday, netted another 17 points, while Rebecca Remington pumped in a career-high 24-points.

Leading the Lady Racers is the Fuqua-Holmes duo, averaging 13.1 and 12.6 points respectively, ranking them 12th and 13th in the OVC. Holmes is also the squad's leading rebounder with 6.9 rebounds per contest. Teammate Jenny Bowden is making a huge impact as the squad's top helper, dishing out 3.5 per contest, ranking her fifth in the conference.

Up Next...The winner will advance to the OVC tournament semifinals this Friday, March 5 at noon in Nashville, Tenn. at the Municipal Auditorium. That squad will match-up against the victor of the No. 1 Austin Peay/ No. 8 Morehead State game. That game is slated for 5:30 on March 2 in Clarksville, Tenn.