Click here for live stats!

Click here for live audio!

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will begin its 2011-12 season on Saturday against Xavier University at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.  The game will be the season-opener for both teams and is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

The Musketeers are receiving votes in both preseason polls.  Xavier is 31st in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and is 36th the Associated Press Poll.

This will be the 11th meeting between the two programs.  EKU holds a 6-4 lead in the series, but Xavier has won three straight meetings.  The last time the two faced each other, Xavier won 82-49 in Cincinnati on Dec. 6, 2005.

Eastern Kentucky returns five letter winners, including three starters, from last year’s team.  Six new players and two student-athletes that sat out last season after transferring from Division I schools were added to the team.

In EKU’s first exhibition game of the season, it took a last-second 26-foot three-pointer by junior Brittany Coles to force overtime against the University of the Cumberlands.  The Lady Colonels scored the first six points of overtime in a 70-67 victory.

Coles had missed her first three three-point attempts when she gave the Lady Colonels new life.  Sophomore Marie Carpenter finished with 15 points.  Raechele Gray added nine points and seven assists in her first game as a Lady Colonel.  Eastern was out-rebounded 41-36 and missed 10 free throws.  However, the team shot 43 percent from the field and only turned the ball over 12 times.

Xavier begins the 2011-12 season with a new coach and only one returning starter.  The Musketeers went 29-3 last season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.  Xavier was a perfect 14-0 in the Atlantic 10 a year ago.  Senior guard Tyeasha Moss is the lone returning starter.  She averaged 10 points, four rebounds and three assists per game last year.  No other returning player averaged more than 3.5 points per game last season.

Xavier beat Indianapolis 58-41 in an exhibition game on Nov. 5.  In addition to Moss, the other four starters were 6-foot-3 freshman forward Liz Stratman, 6-foot-2 junior forward Jessica Pachko, sophomore guard Shatyra Hawkes and 6-foot sophomore guard Lynette Holmes.

Junior forward Amber Gray came off the bench to lead Xavier with 16 points.  Pachko recorded a double-double, finishing with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The Musketeers limited Indianapolis to 21 percent shooting from the field and 12 percent shooting from three-point range.