The Morehead State women’s basketball team is preparing for its first game in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) tournament, set to take place Thursday at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. The Eagles will face either Little Rock or Southeast Missouri, depending on the outcome of Wednesday’s opening round.
Morehead State earned a first-round bye after finishing fourth in the OVC standings. The team concluded its regular season with an 18-13 overall record and a 13-7 mark in conference play. Their most recent game ended in a 73-68 loss to Little Rock, where Laura Toffali led all scorers with a career-high 32 points.
Little Rock finished its regular season at 15-15 overall and 11-9 in conference games. The Trojans come into the tournament after a loss to Southern Indiana but have gone 3-2 over their last five games. Jordan Holman leads Little Rock as an All-OVC First Team selection, averaging 17.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game during conference play.
Southeast Missouri enters the tournament on a four-game winning streak, qualifying as one of the hottest teams in the OVC. The Redhawks secured their spot with an 83-61 win over Tennessee Tech and finished their regular season at 12-17 overall and 8-12 in conference play. Carmen Taylor leads SEMO with an average of 13.1 points per game.
This season marks Morehead State’s best performance since the 2018-19 campaign, when they posted a record of 24-11 overall and went 13-5 in OVC play.
Three players from Morehead State received All-Conference honors this week: Kate Dike was named to the All-OVC First Team; Laura Toffali was selected for both the All-OVC Second Team and OVC All-Newcomer Team; Marie Sepp also earned spots on both lists.
Laura Toffali shared OVC Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors with Addi Brownfield from Western Illinois. Toffali recorded 94 steals this season—one shy of tying Morehead State’s single-season record set by Chynna Bozeman—and ranks among national leaders with her steals total and average per game.
As a team, Morehead State led the OVC with 198 steals during conference play, averaging nearly ten per game over that stretch. Offensively, they ranked sixth in scoring within conference games at just over sixty-three points per contest while allowing just above sixty-one points defensively—good for fourth-best among league teams.
The Eagles also stood out for their shooting efficiency: they hit nearly forty-two percent from the field and thirty-two percent from three-point range during league games—both figures ranking them fourth within the OVC.
Individually, Kate Dike led MSU by averaging fourteen-and-a-half points (sixth-best in OVC) and more than seven rebounds (fifth). She also ranked highly for field goal percentage and contributed significantly on defense with seventeen blocked shots during league action.
Toffali averaged more than twelve points per contest this year while closing out her regular season with standout performances—including back-to-back games posting five steals each time alongside her career-high scoring effort against Little Rock.
Marie Sepp contributed strongly as well, ranking second among all players in assists per game within conference matchups (4.38). When she scored double digits this year, Morehead State won ten out of twelve such contests; when she missed two midseason games due to injury or other reasons, MSU split those outings evenly.
Violet McNece emerged late in the season as another key contributor—scoring double figures seven times across MSU’s final eight contests while leading her team offensively during that span. She shot better than fifty percent from three-point range over those eight games and achieved career highs along several statistical categories including blocks made throughout both non-conference and league schedules.
Landon Forbes provided steady guard play by ranking third among all players for assists tallied within league action while converting nearly eighty-eight percent of her free throws—a figure that led all Eagles shooters this year.
Looking ahead to potential opponents: Little Rock has relied heavily on defensive prowess despite lower offensive output relative to peers; Southeast Missouri brings momentum into postseason play thanks largely to improved scoring efficiency down their stretch run.
