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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Eastern Kentucky’s women’s basketball team will begin its quest for the program’s third Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship on Wednesday against Tennessee State at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.

Tip-off in is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.  The live radio broadcast of the game is available in the Richmond area on WEKY 1340 AM, and can be heard worldwide on EKUSports.com.  A free live video broadcast of the contest is available on OVCSports.TV.

EKU is 12-15 overall and 7-9 in OVC play this season and enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed.  The No. 7 seeded Lady Tigers posted a 9-19 record and a 5-11 conference mark.  The winner will face No. 3 seed Tennessee Tech on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.

Eastern Kentucky has won two tournament titles (1997 and 2005).  EKU has qualified for 22 of the 31 tournaments and has an overall tournament record of 13-19.  Eastern has made four trips to the tournament finals.  EKU is 2-2 as the sixth seed.  Eastern advanced to the finals as the No. 6 seed in 2004, beating No. 3 Jacksonville State and No. 2 Tennessee Tech before falling to No. 1 Austin Peay in the title game.  The Lady Colonels are 11-6 all-time against lower seeded teams.

Wednesday’s game will be the 50th meeting between the two teams.  EKU leads the series 34-15 and has won three in a row against TSU.  This will be the first-ever meeting between the two programs on a neutral court. 

The last time the two teams met, Jade Barber scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half, including a run of seven unanswered, to lead Eastern Kentucky to a 73-66 victory at Tennessee State on February 1.  After not hitting a three-pointer in the first half, TSU stayed in the game by hitting 7-of-17 from deep in the second half.  However, the Lady Tigers made just 5-of-23 from inside the arc in the second stanza.

Raechele Gray led EKU with 18 points.  She dished out seven assists and had only two turnovers in 39 minutes.  Marie Carpenter had 14 points, going 8-for-8 at the free throw line.  Alex Jones recorded her 22nd career double-double, finishing with 12 points and 13 rebounds.  Kim Haynes had a team-best 19 points for TSU.

Tennessee State has lost six of its last seven and has been held to fewer than 67 points in five of its last six.  TSU ended the regular season with an 87-83 loss at home to Murray State.  Jasmin Shuler led the Lady Tigers with 21 points.  Simone Hopes added 16.  Tennessee State shot 47 percent, but allowed Murray State to shoot 48 percent and was out-scored at the free throw line by 10.

Shuler, a 5-foot-8 junior guard, leads the team in scoring at 15.3 points per contest.  Tayla Foster contributes 8.9 points and a team-best 4.7 rebounds per game.