Thursday's tipoff against TSU (2-3) in Nashville is slated for 5:30 p.m. Saturday's game at APSU (1-5) is set for 5:15 p.m. Following the OVC opener Thursday, the Panthers (3-3) will have played their first seven games this year in six different states.
As was the case during the 2008-09 campaign, EIU won't have its rematches with the Lady Tigers and Lady Govs until the final weekend of the regular season (Feb. 25-27).
Eastern played both TSU and APSU three times a season ago. The Panthers were able to win all three meetings with the Lady Tigers for the second year a row, extending their current winning streak in the series to seven. However, EIU was unable to complete the season sweep of the Lady Govs, coming up on the wrong end of double-overtime upset in the championship game of the OVC Tournament.
Eastern has won each of its last three games in Clarksville. Austin Peay hosts Southeast Missouri Thursday.
APSU and TSU were tabbed second and third, respectively, in the OVC preseason poll, combining for 10 first-place votes. But both teams battled through rocky Novembers, posting their lone Division I wins against Lipscomb.
Chantelle Pressley and
Pilar Walker played their best games of the season in the Gentry Center a year ago. The Lexington, Ky., natives each scored nine points, combining for 14 in the second half to help EIU overcome a four-point halftime deficit.
A week later in the OVC Tournament semifinal game versus TSU,
Ashley Thomas scored 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting off the bench. She accounted for eight points during a 15-3 run in the second half as the Panthers blew the game open.
Like EIU, the Lady Tigers lost multiple key seniors to graduation from the 2008-09 team. However, fifth-year senior Oby Okafor has come back from an Achilles tendon injury that forced her to redshirt last year. She leads TSU in scoring (16.2 ppg) while shooting 56 percent from the field. The power forward has collected 25 of her team-high 34 rebounds off the offensive glass.
However, Tennessee State has not been shooting the ball well from 3-point land (.273) and at the free throw line (.508).
Forward Simone Hopes (6.4 ppg, .441 FG percentage) and shooter Keri Hess (7 of the team's 18 3-pointers) are the Lady Tigers' notable newcomers.
Among EIU's returning players,
Dominique Sims had the best game against APSU a season ago. In one her best all-around games of her junior campaign, she recorded 15 points, six rebounds and six assists on 5-of-7 shooting from the field in the Panthers' victory in Charleston.
In that same game, the Lady Govs' Ashley Herring scored 33 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field. That ranks as the second most points scored by an opposing player during head coach Brady Sallee's six-year tenure. Only Louisville's Angel McCoughtry (41 in December 2006) scored more.
Herring enters the week averaging 15.2 points per game and has accounted for 12 of APSU's 31 3-pointers. Nicole Jamen is also back from last year's team and is averaging 11.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. She played for the Cameroon National Team in October at the FIBA Africa Championship for Women.
Redshirt-freshman Neika Smith started at point guard in the Lady Govs' last game, an overtime loss to Northwestern State in the consolation game of Vanderbilt's tournament. Emily Pollock, who burned the Panthers in the OVC Tournament title game, left the APSU program in May.
Eastern has won three straight OVC openers and has played either Tennessee State or Austin Peay during the opening weekend of conference play each of the last six seasons.
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID
