RICHMOND, Ky. – Seniors Niki Avery, Ashley Cazee and Crystal Jones will be honored before Saturday’s game against Tennessee State as the Eastern Kentucky University women’s basketball team concludes the regular season portion of its schedule. The Lady Colonels (14-12, 9-10 OVC) ensured themselves of a trip to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament with a win over Austin Peay on Thursday.

The Lady Tigers (12-16, 9-10 OVC) fell to Morehead State on Thursday to create a tie with EKU for fifth place. The winner will receive the fifth seed in next week’s conference tournament.

Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. The game will be aired live on WEKY 1340 AM in the Richmond area and can be heard worldwide at EKUsports.com.

Eastern Kentucky leads the all-time series 30-10, but Tennessee State snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Lady Colonels with a 104-85 win in Nashville on January 24. Eastern is 19-1 all-time in games played in Richmond.

On Thursday, Eastern Kentucky guaranteed itself a postseason berth with a 62-55 win over Austin Peay at McBrayer Arena. The Lady Colonels held the Lady Govs scoreless for the final five and a half minutes and scored 10 unanswered points to turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point victory. Jones scored a game-high 26 points for EKU.

Despite shooting 54.4 percent from the field in that earlier meeting against Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky lost by 19 points. The Lady Tigers shot 61.4 percent and forced 25 turnovers. Jones led the Lady Colonels with 22 points.

TSU’s trio of Kendra Appling, Tiffany Jackson and Oby Okafor combined for 83 points and 21 rebounds. Appling led the way with 39 points on 12-of-18 shooting. Jackson added 26 points and six boards. Okafor finished with 18 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Cazee added 21 points, eight assists, four rebounds and four steals for the Lady Colonels. Avery finished with 17 points.

Lady Tigers have split their last four games, including a 67-64 loss at Morehead State on Thursday.

Jackson and Okafor each scored 21 points against Morehead State, but TSU shot just 18.2 percent (2-for-11) from three-point range and 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from the free throw line. Jackson and Okafor recorded seven and 10 rebounds respectively.

A few days after scoring 50 points against Jacksonville State, Appling finished with 16 points on 6-of-22 shooting against the Eagles.

Only three other Lady Tigers scored, and none of them had more than two points. The TSU bench contributed only four points.

Appling leads the team in scoring with an average of 17.7 points per game. Okafor is close behind at 16.9 points per contest. She also averages a team-best 8.3 boards per game.

Appling and Charisse Hicks each have more than 100 three-point attempts. Okafor and Appling also have over 100 turnovers each.

As a team, Tennessee State averages 66.2 points per game and allows 69.1 by its opponents. The team averages 22 turnovers per game, but they also force a lot of turnovers. Lady Tiger opponents average 21.3 turnovers per game.