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Cape Girardeau, Mo. (November 21, 2002) - The Southeast Missouri State Otahkian basketball team will open its regular season Friday as they play host to the Lady Reddies of Henderson State University.

In the first two exhibition games this season, coach B.J. Smith thinks his squad worked some of their early season kinks out and are starting to look like the team he knows them to be.

Both games were wins, but were really just tune-ups for Smith's team. In the first game, the Otahks faced a group of former college all-stars out of St. Louis named Goldstar. The team featured former Southeast stars in Renee Rogliardi and Sandy Fletcher.

The Otahkians struggled early, but found a rhythm as they were led by strong performances from senior forward Lori Chase and sophomore guard Kenja White. Both had 14 points and Chase was 6-7 from the free throw line. Junior forward Carina Souza had ten points and six rebounds in a 30 minute night.

Their next game saw them facing off against Division II Southern Illinois Edwardsville. This game was all Southeast. Thanks to 47 percent from the field in both halves, Southeast was able to dominate the Cougars throughout the night.

The Otahks were led by another strong performance from Souza who had 16 points and pulled down six rebounds. Junior forward Yashika Sidbury had 12 points and eight boards and Chase had 10 points and eight rebounds. White helped with the cause by contributing 10 points, giving the Otahks four players in double figures for the night.

Southeast will next go on the road on Tuesday as they travel to Springfield to take on the Bears of Southwest Missouri in a 7:05 tip off. They then will travel on to Green Bay, Wisconsin over the Thanksgiving holiday to compete in the Wisconsin-Green Bay Tournament. They will face host Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first game at 7 p.m. on Friday and will either face Quinnipiac or the University of Miami on Saturday.

Then they come back home on December 5 to take on the Lady Bison of Lipscomb University at 7 p.m. at the Show Me Center.