Southeast suffers disappointing loss

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University coach B.J. Smith conceded that his team had a solid road trip to start Ohio Valley Conference play, but he also realized it could have been so much better.

Southeast, which began its OVC schedule Thursday by winning at two-time defending regular-season champion Austin Peay, saw a 17-point lead early in the second half disappear Saturday, as preseason favorite Tennessee Tech posted an 80-78 victory.

"It is disappointing because we really had an opportunity to get both of these," Smith said. "But one loss isn't going to lose the conference. There's a lot of the season left, and we're just now starting to put the pieces together."

Southeast fell to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in OVC play. Tech is 9-4 and 2-0.

"SEMO has a very good team," Tech coach Bill Worrell said. "Both teams made some outstanding plays."

Junior center Tatiana Conceicao led Southeast with 23 points, 15 coming in the second half. Conceicao, who hit 10 of 14 shots from the field, also had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Senior guard Brandi Russia scored 17 points, 15 coming in the final half. Junior forward Simone Jackson added 11 points.

Tech junior center Emily Christian, the OVC's preseason player of the year, led all scorers with 26 points. Sophomore guard Kendall Cavin had 22 points.

"I thought what hurt us is that we didn't adjust when they started calling touch fouls late in the game," Smith said. "They scored a lot of points from the line."

Tech hit 30 of 40 free throws while Southeast went to the line just 17 times and made 11. The Eaglettes were 22 of 30 in the second half.

While Southeast, which led 39-31 at halftime and 48-31 just two minutes into the second half, saw that big advantage disappear, it's not as if Smith's squad simply wilted.

After Tech, helped by a barrage of 3-pointers, used a 25-8 run to pull into a 56-56 tie with 10 minutes remaining, the teams engaged in a back-and-forth finish that featured six ties and six lead changes as neither squad led by more than four points.

Conceicao scored 10 straight Southeast points during one late stretch as the visitors grabbed a 71-68 lead with 2:49 left for their biggest advantage of the final 10 minutes.

Southeast trailed 75-72 when Russia buried a 3-pointer with 1:30 left to tie things.

Tech senior guard Tynisha Alexander made two free throws with 1:16 remaining to put the Eaglettes ahead to stay at 77-75.

It was 79-75 when Jackson got a three-point play with 36 seconds left to pull Southeast within 79-78.

That's when things got strange. Tech had a 3-point attempt blocked toward the end of the shot clock and Russia broke out of the pack with several teammates on what looked like a solid fast-break opportunity and still five or six seconds remaining.

But, a few seconds after Tech's initial attempt that was blocked, the shot clock inexplicably went off. Russia believed it was the final buzzer and instinctively heaved up a shot from midcourt that was way off the mark.

Tech retrieved the ball and made one of two free throws with .3 seconds left for the final margin.

"I thought it was the buzzer so I just threw it up," Russia said. "We would have won. They got lucky."

Said Smith: "The shot clock should have never gone off. We still had five or six seconds left with a good chance to score. I feel bad for Brandi because she played really well."