By Thomas Corhern, TTU Athletics Media Relations
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – As the Ohio Valley Conference teams and media converged on Evansville for the 2025 Basketball Media Day, the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team saw themselves picked second in the league's preseason poll.
Despite receiving 12 of the 22 first-place votes, the Golden Eagles finished just four points behind Lindenwood in the preseason poll – the Lions received six first-place votes to finish with 179 points to the Golden Eagles' 175. Tech defeated Lindenwood in overtime in the 2025 OVC Basketball Championships to continue their 17-game winning streak and earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
Finishing out the top five were Western Illinois with four first-place votes for 166 overall points, Southern Indiana had 147 points and Eastern Illinois had 121. UT Martin (117), Little Rock (110), Tennessee State (78), Southeast Missouri (51), Morehead State (33) and SIUE (33) rounded out the poll.
Senior guard Reghan Grimes were among seven returning All-OVC players, including Lindenwood's Ellie Brueggemann and Brooke Coffey, Little Rock's Jordan Holman, UT Martin's Kenley McCarn and Western Illinois' Raegan McCowan and Mia Nicastro.
Grimes led the team with 12.8 points per game, averaging 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. She shot 44.3 percent from the field, 35.0 percent from 3-point range, and 75.2 percent from the free-throw line. Grimes scored a season-high 26 points at Colorado, while she turned in double-doubles of 23 points and 10 rebounds and 11 points and 10 boards in back-to-back games against Southern Indiana and Morehead State. She knocked down a career-best 11 free throws on 12 tries for 18 points at UT Martin and scored in double figures 22 times. Grimes sits just five points away from 1,000 for her career.
Sophomore guard Chloe Larry and graduate guard Reagan Hurst were named to the conference's Watch List. Larry was named to the OVC All-Newcomer Team and earned OVC Freshman of the Week four times. She played in all 32 games, making 31 starts. Larry was ranked third on the team with 11.5 points per game, averaging 4.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. She shot 40.1 percent from the floor, 35.7 percent from downtown, and 84.7 percent from the charity stripe. Larry scored a season-high 23 points against the University of the Cumberlands and turned in 21 points and a season-best 10 rebounds for her first career double-double at SIUE She dished out a season-best eight assists with nine points against Tennessee State and scored in double figures 19 times.
Hurst missed the 2024-25 season to injury, but played in all 31 games, starting 29, in 2023-24. She set a new career-high in scoring with 22 points at Little Rock, a new career-high in assists with seven at Southeast Missouri and tied her career-high in steals with five steals against Chattanooga. Hurst tied her career-high in blocks with two at Lindenwood, had a career day in 3-point shooting with a 5-for-8 day at Little Rock and at the free-throw line with an 8-for-10 performance vs. Chattanooga. Hurst was fourth on the team in scoring with 8.8 points, averaged 2.8 rebounds, had 65 total assists and 42 steals and shot .359 (79-for-220) from the field, .277 (23-for-83) from 3-point range and 92-for-125 (.736) at the charity stripe.
