New coach, new goals: SEMO women's basketball looks to rebound during the 2024 season

After a challenging 2023-2024 season, the SEMO women’s basketball team is looking to turn things around under the leadership of a new head coach, a core group of returning players, and some new faces.

One of the biggest changes for this season is the arrival of Briley Palmer as the new head coach. Palmer, who signed a five-year contract, previously served as the head coach at Mineral Area College. She replaces former head coach Rekha Patterson, and the Redhawks are looking to build on her experience and leadership.

“I come from a really old-school disciplined coach who I played for and coached under with Coach Koch who is also an alumni here. I think that experience of making and understanding what the OVC takes from being a Southeast Missouri kid anyway, it only makes more sense that I know what’s going to beat the OVC as well,” Palmer said.

Sophomore guard Indiya Bowen is a key returning member of the Redhawks team. She averaged 9.1 points-per-game last season, scoring 263 points as a freshman. Bowen finished second on the team in steals last season with 38 and she also led the Redhawks in three-point shooting with 31% (30-94). Bowen's experience will be crucial as the team aims to improve on last year's performance.

“I want to be able to do more on the court other than score; I want to get out, rebound, I want to make sure that when the point guard is not able to get it up I can. And defensively I want to be better,” Bowen said.

Last week, freshman guard Zoe Best won OVC player of the week. She graduated high school from Incarnate Word Academy in Bel-Nor, MO. Best put up an impressive 25 points during the Redhawks first game against Dayton. Best has adjusted well to playing college ball.

“College athletics versus high school athletics is a job. It’s way more. You have practice, weights, film, one-on-one with coaches. It’s a lot more pressure than high school ball, but from my high school to this college it’s been a smooth transition. My high school got me ready,” Best said.

Last year, the Redhawks finished the season 9-20 with a 6-12 record in conference.

So far on the season, SEMO sits at 0-3.

“There’s gonna be adversity throughout this whole year. As long as they’re putting their teammates first I think we’ll be just fine. The best teams that win the OVC are connected at the end,” Coach Palmer said.

Next up, SEMO will play their very first home game against SIU at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25 at the Show Me Center.