Southeast women's basketball loses on senior night

The UT Martin women's basketball team spoiled Southeast Missouri State University's senior night after handing them a 77-44 loss Saturday night.

Seniors Bianca Beck, Amber Holmes, and Karly Evans played their last game in the Show-Me Center.

"They're such great girls," coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I thank them for everything they gave to the university, on and off the court and quite honestly making my transition this year so smooth."

Beck played in her 114th game as a Redhawk which is the third most by any woman to put on a Redhawk's basketball jersey. She has scored 550 points, recorded 125 steals and dished out 256 assists in her four-year career that began in 2008.

Holmes averaged 3.3 minutes in her career at Southeast and had 13 blocks her junior year. Evans played for Southeast for two years and was able to pull in 107 rebounds and hand out 93 assists during her career.

"It's been rocky because I started off kind of good and fell off my junior year," Beck said. "For my senior year I wanted to focus on redeeming myself."

UT Martin guards Jasmine Newsome and Heather Butler proved to be too much for the Beck and Redhawks Saturday night. Newsome and Butler outscored the whole Redhawk team when they exploded for a combined 48 points.

"It's frustrating because they can penetrate, they can shoot, and it's a hard matchup," Beck said. "Credit to them because they have talent and they displayed it tonight."

Butler and Newsome combined for 65 points in UT Martin's last win against Murray State. Both guards got off to a good start against the Redhawks when they scored 27 of their teams 35 points in the first half.

The Redhawks were down 35-20 at halftime due to poor shooting when they shot 9-for-28 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half.

"We haven't shot the ball well from 3-point line all year even though I thought we had some really good looks," Margenthaler said. "I wanted to go inside more but they did a good job of doubling."

The Redhawks came out of halftime with a 5-0 run, with scoring from Beck, Brittany Harriel and Courtney Shiffer to bring the score to 35-25. The short lived run came to a halt when UT Martin guard Jasmine Newsome hit a 3-pointer which was soon followed by a 3-pointer from Jaclissa Haislip and jump shot by Heather Butler to bring the score to 43-27.

"Tonight they were on, hitting all of their 3's and penetrating," Beck said. "We couldn't keep up with them offensively."

UT Martin would drained seven 3-pointers in the second half alone. There were under six minutes left in the game when UT Martin's Butler gave her team the largest lead of the game of 64-39 after hitting another 3-pointer.

UT Martin shot 50 percent from the 3-point line in the second half before ending the game with a 77-44 win.

"We are a defensive team and need to come out ready to stop teams," Evans said. "We can't go back and forth with teams."

The Redhawks are 3-11 in the Ohio Valley Conference which puts them in tenth place. The Redhawks need to finish the season no lower in than eighth place to qualify for the OVC Tournament. Their next game is at 5:15p.m. Feb. 23 at Jacksonville State in Jacksonville on Feb. 23 and their last game of the regular season is at 5:15p.m. Feb. 25 at Austin Peay.

"We are going to be in practice real focused on Jacksonville State and Austin Peay," Beck said. "If we beat those two teams we will be in the tournament and that's our goal."