Denzel Mahoney leaves Southeast’s basketball program

Southeast men’s basketball guard Denzel Mahoney announced on Tuesday, May 7, that he will be leaving the program after two seasons to pursue opportunities that will allow him to play at the highest level.

According to a press release from GoSoutheast, Mahoney informed head coach Rick Ray that he has interest from Power 5 programs.

"Despite being given the number of players in the NBA from mid-major programs, including his former teammate Antonius Cleveland, who just signed a multi-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks,” Ray said. “Denzel feels that transferring is in his best interest to pursue his goal. He has been a great player for us over the last two seasons here at SEMO and we wish him the best."

During his career at Southeast, Mahoney started every game, was the Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year for the 2016-17 season and led the team with 19.3 points per game which led him to earn First-Team All-OVC honors last season. Mahoney scored a total of 1,091 points, 298 total rebounds, 51 steals and played 1,946 minutes while at Southeast.

"I want to thank my teammates, coaches and everyone else who has been part of my career at SEMO these past two years," said Mahoney. "I wish this program nothing but success."

The future still looks bright for the Redhawks and they will return three starters in 2018-19, including two that ranked among the team’s top four scorers last year.

"We will continue to do what we have done in the past with players like Denzel and Ledarrius… Identify and recruit talented student-athletes that are genuinely interested in academics and being good citizens. We will then develop them both on and off the court into even better players and people," said Ray. "We have a lot of talent in our program and continue to build on our program's success. We are excited about the future of SEMO Basketball."