With the regular season coming to an end this week, many of the teams are still vying for good positioning in postseason play.

Depending on the results of the weekend, a lot of movement in the lower half of the conference could be seen. Eastern head coach Linda Wunder hopes good play on the road this weekend will boost the team’s position and confidence before the upcoming Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. The Panthers will try to move up in the standings Thursday at Tennessee State.

“Tennessee State is a very hard place to play,” Wunder said. “We know that we are walking into a very hostile environment Thursday night. We just have to be ready to play.”

She also knows how important this game is for Tennessee State.

“They (Tennessee State) need two wins this weekend to even qualify for the postseason tournament,” Wunder said. ” They know they need to beat us and I expect they will be very fired up to play.”

Not only is this game important for Tennessee State, but it could eventually help the Panthers move up in the standings as well. With a victory over Tennessee State Thursday night and a win at Tennessee Tech Saturday, the Panthers would increase their positioning and move into the sixth seed for the tourney. But once again this game has importance to both teams involved.

Tennessee Tech is currently one game ahead of the Panthers and need to win in order to secure that sixth spot. Tennessee Tech is coming off a big win this past Saturday, as they blew away Tennessee State 81-58. The last time Eastern and Tennessee Tech met, the Panthers were victorious 64-46. While the game Saturday night may prove to be the more important of the two, Coach Wunder isn’t really worried about it yet.

“This weekend we are gonna take each game one at a time,” she said. “We know how important this games are for us and we can’t look past the first one. We could end up anywhere from sixth to not in the tournament at all, and we have to remember that.”

As the Panthers look to start a winning streak prior to the tournament, the favorite going in would have to be Austin Peay.

The Governors are the hottest team in the conference and hold the best conference record. The Governors are 14-0 in conference and 22-3 overall. They have been playing great basketball all season long, and have other coaches wondering if they can be beat.

With an 80-78 victory over Southeast Missouri Saturday night, the Governors claimed their first outright OVC regular season title. It was the first time an Austin Peay women’s basketball team had won a regular season title since the 1995-96 season, when they shared it with former member Middle Tennessee.

With Austin Peay as the favorite, other teams that have already clinched postseason berths will look to prove themselves as contenders right away.

Eastern Kentucky, Southeast Missouri, Morehead State, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee Tech have already clinched spots and will look to carry momentum from this weekend into the upcoming tournament.

Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Tennessee State will contend for the final two spots this weekend, and attempt to continue their seasons into the OVC Tournament.