RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Larry Joe Inman's injury-riddled Eastern Kentucky University women's basketball team hosts a very tough foe Saturday afternoon at McBrayer Arena at 4:30 p.m. in the once-beaten (6-1) Xavier University Musketeers.

EKU improved to 3-4 on the year with an up-tempo 94-91 victory at Morehead State last Saturday to tipoff Ohio Valley Conference action for the 1999-2000 season. Meanwhile, Xavier was losing its first game of the season in six outings, a 77-71 double-overtime thriller to the University of Cincinnati.

"Xavier is really good," said Inman, in his 12^th season as head coach of the Lady Colonels. "They had a nice team last year that took Connecticut to the wire in the NCAA Tournament before losing. They have a good team this year, too, with quality post players and good perimeter players."

Senior guard Marla Gearhart, who was battling early foul trouble against Morehead State, poured in 17 of her 20 points in the second half as the Lady Colonels withstood a late MSU charge to secure their first OVC win of the young season.

Junior center Candice Finley led five EKU twin-digit scorers with 21 points and paced all Colonel rebounders with seven. Sophomore guard Zoey Artist added 15 points and had the biggest assist of the game to teammate Susan Hatcher with 46 seconds left that put Eastern up 93-87. Artist led EKU in assists vs. MSU with five.

Freshman guard Teresa McNair chipped in with 14 points, five rebounds and five steals, and Hatcher added 12 points off the bench on 6-9 shooting from the field.

The Colonels played without junior forward Charlotte Sizemore, EKU's leading scorer at 17.0 points per game, who has missed two games since injuring her knee against Florida International Nov. 27. She will be out of action an undetermined amount of time.

And, during the game, junior forward Larrya Wall suffered a hairline fracture of her eighth rib in the first half of play and did not return to action.

"I"m going to have to ask Santa Claus for a couple of post players since our injuries are getting so bad and we keep losing people," Inman said. "It's a shame because of the way this team works so hard and plays so hard. But we played with a lot of courage against Morehead State and withstood a lot of runs.

"I give our defense a lot of credit for the way they got after it tonight. I also thought we did a much better job making decisions in our ball-handling and shot selection tonight," he added.

Wall is slated to practice this week to determine if she will be ready to suit up against Xavier Saturday.