Editorial

SEMO basketball teams OVC tournament bound

It's been several years since both the Southeast Missouri State men's and women's basketball teams secured berths to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, but this year both did just that.

The men's basketball team, which won just five games last year, just missed out on winning the league's West Division title. But the Redhawks are back in the OVC tournament in coach Rick Ray's second season at the helm. They received the No. 5 seed in the tournament and face No. 8 Tennessee State at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Municipal Auditorium in Nashville. Freshman Denzel Mahoney was named the league's Freshman of the Year and was also a second-team and all-newcomer team selection. Senior Antonius Cleveland was a first-team all-conference selection.

The Southeast women's team is back in the tournament for a second year in a row after not having made it since 2009. Rekha Patterson's squad will be the eighth seed and face top-seeded and regular-season OVC champion Belmont at 1 p.m. today at Municipal Auditorium. Senior Bri Mitchell was selected first-team all-conference.

We wish both teams the best of luck in their quest for an OVC tournament title and NCAA tournament berth.

You can follow along with all the tournament action at semoball.com or by following Southeast Missourian reporter Trent Singer's updates on Twitter @semoballTrent.

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