Southeast Missouri head women’s basketball coach John Ishee will not be able to watch his team play Tennessee-Martin on Saturday.

The Ohio Valley Conference issued a one-game suspension to Ishee after he was issued two technical fouls and was ejected from Saturday’s game at Murray State.

He spent the remainder of the game in the locker room at the Regional Special Events Center.

The OVC penalty for being ejected from a contest is an automatic one-game suspension.

“I will be consistent,” Ishee said. “It is what it is. I am no way set out to embarrass the university or myself.”

Ishee will be able to coach his team in a game at 3 p.m. on Feb. 7 in Morehead, Ky., when SEMO plays Morehead State.

“My hardwood floors are going to get a test of my pacing of the floor,” Ishee said.

It’s been a similar trend in SEMO basketball.

SEMO head men’s basketball coach Scott Edgar commented about league officials in a post-game radio interview following the Redhawks 82-78 loss to Morehead State Thursday. It earned him a one-game suspension handed down by the OVC office.

Morehead State women’s basketball coach Mike Bradbury wasn’t issued a technical, but the Eagles’ bench was charged with one on Saturday night against Eastern.

Eastern red-shirt sophomore guard Megan Edwards hit both free throws.

“Mike and I are clearly good, good friends, and he’s passionate about the job,” Eastern head coach Brady Sallee said. “We both get after it. He may be a little more athletic and nimble than I am. He can do some more things on the sideline. I’m afraid I might get hurt if I do some of those things. His team plays as hard as he coaches.”

Samford coach finds freshmen succeed early

The leading point scorer for Samford isn’t a senior.

She’s not even a junior.

Emily London is a freshman.

The Samford guard scores 12.1 points per game and has started 13-of-21 games this season. London ranks 15th in the conference in points per game and sixth in the conference in field goal percentage (51.5 percent).

“It’s been wonderful,” Samford head coach Mike Morris said. “She’s just a special player.”

London also ranks fifth in free throw percentage (85.5 percent), fourth in 3-point field goal percentage (47 percent) and fifth in 3-point field goals made per game (1.86).

Samford freshman forward Savannah Hill is second on the team in scoring with 9.8 points per game, but she leads the team in rebounds per game (5.0).

“We needed them to be playing fairly early,” Morris said. “They picked up our system pretty quickly and that enabled them to flourish early.”

Making the conference tournament

With all of the league teams having played at least half of the conference schedule, OVC coaches are concerned about making the conference tournament.

Tennessee State, which sits in the fifth place in the league, is one of these teams.

“You just want to get in the tournament; it’s tough,” Tennessee State assistant coach David Midlik said. “You can’t take any game for granted. Records are deceiving.”

The Lady Tigers (9-11, 6-5) have a right to be concerned. They haven’t made the postseason tournament since 2005.

TSU has finished last place in the league in the past two years and finished in last place in five of the past six years.

On the opposite side, Tennessee Tech (3-18, 2-9) sits in 10th place in the league. The Golden Eagles have made the postseason conference tournament every year they’ve held a tournament.

TTU head coach Amy Brown said her team was coming up short at the end of games.

“We’re playing hard basketball, but we’re not playing smart basketball,” Brown said. “I can’t fault our kids for not playing hard.”

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.