The Eastern women’s basketball team returns home for a three-game homestand beginning with Southeast Missouri on Saturday.

Eastern has had six days in preparation for this game and have lost 21 straight games. They will come into this game with a 1-21 record with a 0-10 record in conference play. SEMO comes into the weekend at 14-9 and is 7-3 against the OVC.

Coach Debbie Black is to approach this game as the start of a new season.

“Our approach is that this is a new season starting Saturday,” she said. “I thought we played a really good game against SIUE last week. They are the best team in the league and we stayed right with them and competed. I think that’s what started hopefully a little lift to be more competitive and win some games.”

Last time out for Eastern, they played conference-leading SIU Edwardsville down to the wire before losing, 87-75. Freshman Halle Stull played a strong game as she recorded her second career double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. She has been coming off the bench the past two games averaging 12 points and nine rebounds in those games.

Sophomore Jalisha Smith and freshman Carmen Tellez broke career highs in last weekend’s game. Smith scored 14 points as she made her second start in a row. She has averaged 9.5 points and seven rebounds in the last two games. For Tellez, it was the first time she has scored double digits in her career as she had 10 points.

SEMO is currently on a two-game winning streak after beating Austin Peay and Murray State. The win against Murray State on Wednesday night was dominant as they won, 96-59.

The 96-point performance was a season high for the Redhawks. Sophomore guard Hannah Noe scored 22 points leading their offense. This was the first time in her career that she scored 20 points. The career high was fueled by a career-best six 3-pointers.

Southeast Missouri used all 13 available players in Wednesday night’s game. The bench scored a season-high 38 points, led by sophomore Kaley Leyhue’s 15 points in 17 minutes of play. The win gave them eight home wins on the season, which is the most they have had since the 2008-09 season.

Black noted that SEMO was similar team to them by how they get production from a variety of players.

“They play a lot like us,” she said. “They put some numbers on the floor. They have an undersized kind of post, they run the floor hard and they don’t really have a superstar. They have a number of players who contribute.”

They were also dominant in rebounding as they out-rebounded Murray State, 47-28. SEMO averages 43 rebounds a game as Eastern averages 33. Rebounding will be a battle to watch if Eastern wants to pull off an upset.

A player to watch for is senior Erin Bollmann who has started every game this season and averages 11 points a game. She is one of the leaders in rebounds on the team as she averages seven per game. The assist leader on the team is freshman Adrianna Murphy with 116 on the season. She is also near the top in steals with 41.

The game is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Lantz Arena.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]