Women's basketball wraps season

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team wrapped up its season on Saturday with a 72-67 loss to Austin Peay at the Show Me Center.

With the loss, Southeast finished with a conference record of 3-13.

This marks the fourth consecutive season under coach Ty Margenthaler that the team has finished with a record under .500, and the fifth time since the 2008-2009 season, when the team finished 15-15.

Southeast played its best basketball at the Show Me Center where it finished with a 6-7 record.

Away from the Show Me Center, the team did noy fare well and earned only four wins.

"I think the inconsistency would be the number one thing contributing to what our record was like. We just were not a consistent team on the offensive end," Margenthaler said.

While the conference record was noy how the team would have liked it to be, Margenthaler contributed the tough times to a combination of things: mindset, toughness and confidence.

"That's a mindset and kind of toughness thing we have to continue to grow and deal with," Margenthaler said. "We didn't have the confidence in January, and I think that once we lost a few that really hurt us."

Out of the 19 losses Southeast suffered this season, six of them were by five points or less.

"A lot of the games were very close so just being able to execute later in the games, or executing the entire game would probably be the best for us," junior forward Erin Bollmann said.

"We went through some adversity just with injuries and the ups and downs, but I think overall this team stayed together," Margenthaler said.

Southeast did not have an easy task to start the season on the road against in-state rival Missouri.

The Redhawks lost the game 88-42 and took a confidence hit early on.

"The Mizzou game was pretty tough, but after that we started to win a couple games and get our confidence back," Bollmann said.

Southeast currently has 14 roster spots and with the four seniors that will be graduating, the team will be returning 10 players for the 2015-2016 season, one of which is sophomore guard Brianna Mitchell.

"Brianna Mitchell as a sophomore guard has really come on. The future for her is very, very bright," Margenthaler said.

Next year, Bollmann and two other juniors will lead the team as seniors.

"We're very consistent. The juniors will bring a lot of stability to the whole entire team," Bollmann said.

The seniors will not be the only ones leading this team next year.

"I think the current sophomores and freshmen are going to have a lot of leadership next year. Coming together this year has been a big thing for us next season," Bollmann said.

Four seniors finished their basketball careers at Southeast and they are guard Allyson Bradshaw, a local product from Notre Dame High School in Cape Girardeau; captain forward Hillary Lively from Indiana; guard Yelena Rosado, a St. Louis product; and captain guard Jasmine Robinson, who played one year for the Redhawks after transferring from Alabama.

"They bring a lot to the team. We're going to really miss them because they are the head of the team and get us going," Mitchell said.

Bradshaw finished third all-time with 3-pointers for Southeast with 163 made in her career.

Lively had the energy that Margenthaler looked for and has played in a total of 48 games for her career.

"She really gave us that energy and toughness with her quality two years," Margenthaler said.

Margenthaler was impressed with how well transfer Robinson adapted this season.

"Just being a one-year player, she adapted really well and came in and had a solid year on both ends of the court," Margenthaler said.

To Bollmann, the Redhawks are more than just a team, they are a family.

"We're a family no matter how it ends, what our season is. I think that we all have become really great friends, and I think that's a really big part," Bollmann said.llmann said.