RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Larry Joe Inman's Eastern Kentucky University women's basketball team came home from their three-game trip to Florida with some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Lady Colonels were able to bring home the runnerup trophy at the Florida International University Thanksgiving Classic. The bad news is leading scorer Charlotte Sizemore could be lost for the season with a knee injury.

"We're very pleased to come home with a trophy. That was one of our goals as a team," said EKU head coach Larry Joe Inman. "But when we learned how bad Charlotte was hurt, it was a real tragedy for our team."

The Lady Colonels come back home to McBrayer Arena Tuesday night for a 6:00 p.m. contest with Belmont University who is 3-1 on the season.

Eastern, 2-3 this year, played a single game at Miami last Tuesday, falling to the Hurricanes, 83-66. Junior center Candice Finley led the way for Eastern with 20 points, while Sizemore chipped in with 14 and Teresa McNair had 12 off the bench.

"We had our chances against Miami and we cut it to 10 with about five minutes to go, but that was as close as we could get," said Inman.

EKU started the FIU tourney in grand style, winning a hard-fought game against Hartford, 96-86. Five Lady Colonels hit for double figures, led by McNair with 22 and Sizemore with 18. Marla Gearhart scored 15, Larrya Wall notched 12 and Mikki Bond canned 10.

"This was a nice win. Hartford has got a good team. We hit the basket well (49.3 percent) and played good defense," said Inman.

In the championship game against Florida International, Inman thought his team was a little intimidated by FIU's size on the frontline which included one player at 6-7.

"I think their size bothered us right at the start of the game, but we seemed to adjust as the game went on," said Inman. "Then Charlotte got hurt toward the latter part of the first half. We made some adjustments but we were down too far."

Sizemore was chosen as a member of the All-Tournament team at FIU, despite missing the second half vs. the Golden Panthers. Senior guard Marla Gearhart also had a good tournament as she scored 15 and 18 points vs. Hartford and FIU, respectively.

"We're playing hard. We just need to do a better job on the boards and on offense," Inman concluded.

After hosting Belmont Tuesday, Eastern begins Ohio Valley Conference play Saturday at Morehead State in a 5:15 p.m. matchup.