It is finals week at Eastern and at campuses around the country, and the all-important conference season is around the corner for OVC women’s basketball teams.

Eight of the 12 teams in the OVC are .500 or better, but only two teams are worse than 4-5.

Leading the way is still Morehead State at 7-2. They have not played a game since Dec. 2 and will not play again until Dec. 12 when they travel to play Baylor.

Moving up to second place is Tennessee-Martin with a record of 6-3. The Skyhawks are also second in the OVC in scoring offense, averaging 81.1 points per game. 

Morehead State leads the conference with 89.3 points per game. 

Now in third place with a record of 5-3 are the two-time reigning champion Belmont Bruins. Back on Dec. 4, they beat Lipscomb 83-43. 

Tied with Belmont is Tennessee Tech, who sits at 5-3 after losing two of their last three games.

Tennessee Tech is a middling offensive team so far and is seventh in the OVC in points per game.

A pair of teams, Jacksonville State and Southern Illinois Edwardsville, are tied for fifth place at 4-3. 

Jacksonville State is the ninth-best offense in the OVC this season, and Southern Illinois Edwardsville is the 11th-worst. 

Both teams have winning records due to their defensive play. Jacksonville State has the best defense in the OVC and Southern Illinois Edwardsville has the second-best. They are surrendering 54.6 and 57 points per game respectively.

Three OVC teams are at exactly .500 this season. Murray State is 3-3, Eastern is 4-4 and Austin Peay is 5-5. 

They are also third, fourth and fifth in the OVC in scoring respectively. Eastern is the only team out of the three with a top-5 defense.

Murray State has lost two in a row and three of four to fall to .500. 

Eastern split a pair of games at the Compass Tournament hosted by Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Eastern beat Western Illinois on Friday before falling to Southern on Saturday.

Austin Peay has only been over .500 one time this season, and have more or less been alternating wins and losses.

Notably, the OVC as a whole is much better at home than on the road. The conference’s overall home record is 30-8, compared to 18-34 on the road. Conference teams are also winless in 10 games at neutral sites.

As has been the case all season, Morehead State’s Miranda Crockett and Aliyah Jeune are leading the OVC in scoring. 

Southeast Missouri’s Tesia Thompson finds herself third in scoring. The OVC’s leading rebounder, Evelyn Adebayo from Murray State, has moved into the fourth spot in scoring and is averaging 16.2 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Leading the nation in assists is Adebayo’s Murray State teammate Macey Turley. The freshman guard is averaging six assists per game. 

Eastern redshirt-senior Grace Lennox is 13th in the conference with 3.3 assisst per game.

When the conference season starts, it will be interesting to see which teams will continue to dominate at home. 

Adam Tumio can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]