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Eastern Kentucky University Athletics

Women's Basketball

THINK PINK: Lady Colonels To Help Raise Breast Cancer Awareness, Host Conference Leader Southeast Missouri State

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RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky will assists in raising breast cancer awareness by participating in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) “Think Pink” initiative, beginning with Saturday’s home game against Ohio Valley Conference leader Southeast Missouri State (16-6, 11-2 OVC). The Lady Colonels (11-8, 6-6 OVC), coming off a win over fourth place Murray State, will attempt to beat a top-four conference team for the third time this season.

In support of “Think Pink” the Lady Colonels will wear pink t-shirts during warm-ups for Saturday’s home game against SEMO and road games at Jacksonville State and Samford on Feb. 14 and 16. The players will also wear pink socks and headbands during the games. EKU coaches and staff members will wear pink during those games as well.

In addition, EKU will welcome the Richmond Breast Cancer Survivors Group to McBrayer Arena on Saturday. The group will receive free admission to the game and will pass out breast cancer awareness stickers and pins. The group will also be recognized on the court.

The "Think Pink" initiative is a global, unified effort for the WBCA's nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The week set aside for this year's initiative is February 8 - 17. The support of this initiative has grown from 120 teams last year to over 900 teams from a variety for sports for 2008.

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

Eastern Kentucky has played well this season against the top teams in the OVC. The Lady Colonels are 2-3 against the top four in the standings, but two of the losses were overtime thrillers against second place Eastern Illinois. The wins have come at home against Samford, which snapped the Bulldogs’ six-game winning streak, and Murray State on Thursday.

EKU leads the all-time series with Southeast Missouri 25-8, but the Redhawks have won four straight meetings. The last three games between the two teams have been decided by two points or less. Only two of the last eight meetings have been decided by 10 or more points and two of the last five games have gone to overtime, including a double overtime game in the 2005 OVC tournament finals. The Lady Colonels won the first 15 meetings in Richmond before Southeast claimed victories in the last two games played at McBrayer Arena.

Against the Racers, Shavonne Jones doubled her previous career-high with 30 points and led Eastern Kentucky to a 79-76 win. The Lady Colonels shot 51.7 percent in the second half and overcame a seven-point deficit in the final five and a half minutes of the game.

Murray State used a 16-4 run midway through the second half to turn a five-point deficit into a seven-point lead, 68-61, with 7:07 left in the game. The two teams exchanged baskets before LaTanya Stokes nailed a three-pointer and Ashley Cazee connected on a lay-up to draw the Lady Colonels to within two points, 70-68, with 5:04 remaining.

Trailing by three, Crystal Jones faked a drive to the basket and then stepped back and knocked down a three-pointer from the right side to tie the score, 74-74, with 2:25 left in the game.

With the score still tied a minute later, Shavonne Jones grabbed the offensive rebound off her own miss and put it back in for a 76-74 EKU lead. After a MSU miss Cazee connected on her lay-up to make it a four-point lead with 34 second showing on the clock.

The Racers missed a three-point attempt and then turned the ball over after an offensive rebound with 13 seconds to go. Niki Avery made one of two free throw attempts for a five-point lead, 79-74.

Paige Guffey’s lay-up with seven ticks before the horn set the final score and was the only points scored by Murray State in the final two and a half minutes of the game.

Cazee finished with 19 points. Crystal Jones totaled 14 points. Shavonne Jones finished the night 10-for-19 from the field and 10-for-12 from the free throw line. She grabbed a game-high, and career-best, nine rebounds and had one block. EKU out-rebounded the Racers 36-30.

The Redhawks, winners of seven straight games and 12 of 13, are the hottest team in the OVC. SEMO holds a half game lead in the standings over Eastern Illinois. Southeast is also the two-time defending conference regular season and tournament champions.

The Redhawks win with defense. They rank among the top three in the conference in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and three-point field goal percentage defense. SEMO allows just 58.5 points per game. Southeast has only scored more than 70 points once in its last 10 games, but have held opponents under 60 points eight times in the last 10 games.

Southeast Missouri and Eastern Kentucky are the top two teams in the OVC in turnover margin. SEMO opponents average 5.45 more turnovers while EKU opponents average 3.47 more turnovers.

Senior Missy Whitney leads the team in scoring (14.9 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg). The 6-foot-2 forward/center had made 43 percent of her shots from the field, 40.4 percent from three-point land and 79.2 percent from the free throw line.

Guard Sonya Daugherty averages 13.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Guard Tarina Nixon averages 10.9 points and leads the team with 31 three-pointers.

Whitney did not play in Southeast Missouri’s 50-48 win at Morehead State on Thursday. Nixon and Daugherty led the team to victory with 19 and 13 points respectively. Crysta Glenn finished with 14 rebounds.

SEMO shot just 26.7 percent in the first half and made only one of 10 attempts from behind the arc. However, the Redhawks warmed up to 43.3 percent (13-of-30) shooting in the second half and out-rebounded Morehead State by 13 for the game.
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