OVC women’s basketball teams enter final month of season
Adam Tumino | The Daily Eastern News
Eastern guard Kira Arthofer drives into the lane against Southeast Missouri Jan. 25 in Lantz Arena. Arthofer had four assists, three rebounds and three steals in a 77-65 loss for the Panthers.
February 3, 2020
The standings have not changed much for the women’s basketball teams in the OVC as it enters the final month of the regular season.
A minor change this week is the presence of an additional loss for Belmont, which fell 60-41 to Jacksonville State in a surprising upset on Feb. 1.
The Bruins are now 8-2 in conference and find themselves tied with Southeast Missouri for third-place in the conference.
Southeast Missouri is the hottest team in the conference, riding a seven-game winning streak.
Sitting atop the conference with 9-1 records are Tennessee Tech and Tennessee-Martin, who will face off Thursday to decide to sole first-place team in the conference. Tennessee Tech’s schedule will not get much easier as it will play Southeast Missouri Saturday.
Tennessee-Martin will not have an opponent as formidable as Southeast Missouri on Saturday, but will play Jacksonville State fresh off its upset win against Belmont.
Eastern is coming off a blowout victory against Austin Peay on Feb. 1, following up a 92-87 overtime loss to Murray State on Jan. 30, a game in which they surrendered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers will be back at home this weekend, hosting Eastern Kentucky Thursday and Morehead State Saturday. Eastern beat each team earlier this season on the road.
The Panthers are 6-4 in conference play, tied for fifth place in the OVC with Jacksonville State.
It is likely that the standings will look quite a bit different come Sunday.
As has been the case much of the season, Tennessee-Martin’s Chelsey Perry and Belmont’s Ellie Harmeyer are the top-two scorers in the conference.
Perry is averaging 21.6 points per game and is fourth in the conference in rebounding, averaging 8.3 rebounds per game. Harmeyer is averaging 17.8 points per game and her 11.7 rebounds per game lead the conference.
Murray State’s Macey Turley is also averaging 17.8 points per game to rank third. Rounding out the top-five scorers is a pair of Southeast Missouri players: Tesia Thompson and Carrie Shephard.
Thompson is averaging 16.8 points per game and Shephard is averaging 16.7. Shephard is also one of the most prolific three-point shooters in the conference, averaging 3.1 made three per game and shooting 42 percent from deep.
Eastern is the only team in the OVC to have three players rank in the top 15 in scoring. Karle Pace is averaging 14.9 points per game, ranking seventh. Abby Wahl ranks ninth averaging 12.4 points per game and also ranks 19th in rebounding, averaging 5.5 per game.
Freshman guard Lariah Washington, due in part to a 35-point outburst on Jan. 30 against Murray State, now ranks 14th in the conference in scoring, averaging 11.2 points per game. She is the top-scoring freshman in the conference. Washington also ranks 21st in the conference in rebounding, averaging 5.4 per game.
Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].
