RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Larry Joe Inman's Eastern Kentucky University Lady Colonel basketball team closes regular season Ohio Valley Conference play this week by hosting Eastern Illinois Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. and Southeast Missouri Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Eastern comes into this week's games in fifth place and will be on the road for the first round of the OVC Tournament at either UT Martin, Murray State or Middle Tennessee. That first round game is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 29.

EKU could not find the range in its latest outing, a 92-70 loss at UT Martin, hitting just 22 percent in the first half in falling behind 42-21 at halftime.

"You shoot 22 percent in one half, you should be behind by 20 points or more. We had a lot of foul trouble in this game. Most of our players were sitting over there by me," said Inman.

Marla Gearhart, waged in a battle for the Ohio Valley Conference scoring lead with Austin Peay's Brooke Armistead, led EKU with 21 points. Gearhart is just behind Armistead for the scoring lead, trailing by one-tenth of a point, 20.0-19.9.

Sophomores Zoey Artist and Crystal Mason came off the bench to aid the Lady Colonels' cause, scoring 13 and 11 points, respectively. Mason's points and her eight rebounds were career highs for her at Eastern.

EKU stands 11-14 overall and 8-8 in conference action this season.