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Game Notes

RICHMOND, Ky. – Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will open 2010 with four Ohio Valley Conference games in eight days. The stretch begins with home games against Tennessee State on Saturday and defending OVC tournament champion Austin Peay on Monday.

The Lady Colonels (5-6, 2-0 OVC) and Lady Tigers (4-7, 1-1 OVC) will tip-off at 4 p.m., on Saturday at McBrayer Arena. All four games will air live in the Richmond area on WEKY 1340 AM, and can be heard worldwide on EKUSports.com.

This is the 44th meeting between Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee State. EKU leads the all-time series 30-13, but TSU has won four straight between the two teams.

The game features a match-up of two of the premier post players in the OVC, freshman Alex Jones for EKU and senior Oby Okafor for TSU. Jones averages 11 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Okafor averages 13.6 points and 6.5 boards.

Jones was selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week for the third time this season on Monday. The Elizabethtown, Ky., native led Eastern with 15 points in a loss to Central Arkansas. She also added four rebounds, an assist and a steal.

In their last game, the Lady Colonels built a 12-point second half lead and led by 10 with 12 minutes left in the game, but Eastern scored just six more points and allowed the Central Arkansas to escape McBrayer Arena with a 52-47 victory on Dec. 22.

The Lady Tigers are coming off a 74-66 home court win over Belmont. TSU opened conference play by splitting a pair of home games. The Lady Tigers lost 70-57 to Eastern Illinois before beating Southeast Missouri 54-50.

Tennessee State is led by Okafor. The senior leads the team in scoring (13.6 ppg) and is second in rebounding (6.5 rpg). She has made 51 percent of her shots from the field, but has knocked down just 43 percent from the free throw line. She ranks third in the OVC in scoring and second in field goal percentage.

Okafor missed last season after suffering an injury during preseason practice. She was a second team All-OVC selection in 2007-08 after averaging 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Despite missing the entire season in 2008-09, Okafor earned preseason all-conference recognition prior to the start of the 2009-10 campaign.

Junior guard/forward Jasmine Smith is second on the team in scoring (8.5 ppg) and leads the Lady Tigers in rebounding (6.8 rpg).

Okafor scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed nine boards in the win over Belmont on Wednesday. Smith came off the bench to score nine points and garner a game-high 13 rebounds. Senior Nikki Rumph and freshman Avery Jones each scored 12 points.