Southeast women's basketball falls flat in loss to EIU

The Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball team led Ohio Valley Conference West Division leader Eastern Illinois by one point about two minutes into the game, but EIU never trailed again.

The Redhawks lost 64-46 to the Panthers on Saturday at the Show Me Center.

"I thought we had a golden opportunity today to knock off the No. 1 team in our league in Eastern Illinois," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I really felt good about the prep work going into the game, I thought we had a good game plan. The most frustrating thing about the afternoon was our effort. Our effort wasn't there tonight and it has been on a consistent basis. I don't know why we were a little flat tonight, but we were and we just couldn't get it going."

The game was tied at six on a free-throw by Southeast guard Kara Wright with 16 minutes, 45 seconds left in the first half, but EIU went on a 7-0 run over the next three and a half minutes.

The Redhawks shot 29 percent in the first half, but never trailed by more than nine points. The Panthers led at halftime 28-21.

EIU extended its lead to 10 points in the first minute of the second half, but Southeast pulled within six with a jump shot by forward Brittany Harriel and a layup by Wright.

EIU went on an 11-1 run to lead 42-26 with 15:17 left in the game. The Redhawks pulled within nine points on shots by Harriel, guard Bailie Roberts, forward Courtney Shiffer and a 3-pointer by Jordan Hunter, but never came any closer.

Hunter was the only Southeast player in double digits with 10 points. Wright finished with 9 points.

"This wasn't our best motion game on offense," Wright said. "We were pretty stagnant and settled for a lot of outside shots.

"We saw on film from numerous opponents that when an opponent drives all five players kind of watch the driver and we have to be ready to shoot. We had good shots, a lot of them just didn't fall. We should've attacked more to get more open shots."

The Redhawks were 3-for-26, just 11.5 percent, from three-point range.

Southeast attempted only six free throws in the game, and made three. The Panthers were 17-for-23 from the free-throw line, including a perfect 7-7 in the first half.

"We got three point happy and they just weren't going. In our game plan we wanted to attack the basket and we wanted to try to get to the free-throw line."

EIU guard Ta'Kenya Nixon scored a game-high 14 points and had five rebounds. Guard Kelsey Wyss finished with 13 points and forward Mariah King added 11 points and five rebounds.

"They're a good basketball team, I mean, they're very senior oriented, they're big," Margenthaler said. "There's really not a lot of holes in that lineup."

EIU outrebounded Southeast 40-38. EIU forward Sydney Mitchell had a game-high nine rebounds and forward Sabina Oroszova added seven. Guard Bailie Roberts led the Redhawks with eight rebounds.

The Redhawks' record falls to 9-15 and 3-8 in OVC play. EIU improves to 15-8 and 9-2 in the OVC.

Southeast's next game will be against SIU Edwardsville at 11 a.m. Monday at the Show Me Center. More than 1,400 students from local elementary schools are expected to be in attendance as part of the Redhawks' Classroom on the Court Program.

"It's going to be a neat deal, it's the first time we've tried this," Margenthaler said about the program.

"We have to mentally get back with it and hopefully survive a home win on Monday and get going," Margenthaler said.