RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Larry Joe Inman's Eastern Kentucky University Lady Colonel basketball team closes its 1998-99 regular season schedule this week with three tough home games in McBrayer Arena - Tuesday night at 6:35 p.m. in a FOX SportSouth regionally-televised game against the University of Kentucky Wildcats, Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. against Tennessee Tech University and Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. against Middle Tennessee State University.

EKU, 11-12 overall and 8-8 inside Ohio Valley Conference play, will be trying to snap a four-game losing streak for the first time since the 1995-96 season. Although losing Saturday afternoon, 103-99, at Morehead State in double overtime, Inman was proud of the way his team battled the Lady Eagles down to the wire.

"I was as proud today of our team as if we had won the game," Inman said. "We played our hearts out and were very courageous. That's all you can ask of your kids.

"We had some shots that just didn't fall today. Our posts did a good job in the second half of making some shots and that seemed to open up our outside game a little bit. I thought we competed hard and played the best we could despite all the foul trouble we had (Five Lady Colonels fouled out in the 50-minute game.).

"This is definitely the best we've played during the last four games. Hopefully, we can build on this kind of effort in our next three games."

Tuesday's opponent, Kentucky, is having one of its best seasons under coach Bernadette Mattox and is currently 16-9 heading into Tuesday night's game with EKU.

"Our team has three really tough games coming up with an outstanding Kentucky team and two of the top teams in our conference," said Inman. "But I feel good about how our kids are going to respond to this kind of challenge. I believe they enjoy playing in games like this and I know we'll come out and play hard against these folks."

Sophomore forward Charlotte Sizemore and sophomore center Candice Finley paced EKU in the MSU game with 25 and 22 points, respectively. Freshman guard Zoey Artist and senior forward Shannon Browning added 12 and 11 points, respectively, off the bench to the Lady Colonels' attack. Senior center Jennifer King was able to collect nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds for EKU.

On the season, Sizemore leads Eastern with her 17.2 per game scoring average. King is next with an 8.7 per game scoring mark and her team-leading 7.6 rebounds per contest average. Mikki Bond, who injured her ankle in the second half at MSU and who did not return to action, is scoring 8.0 points and is tied for third on the team in rebounding at 5.0. Finley is chipping in with eight points and four rebounds per contest.