Austin Peay ends Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team's season

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Reversing two regular-season losses to Eastern Kentucky was one thing.

Pulling off a similar feat against longtime nemesis Austin Peay was a totally different animal.

Southeast Missouri State's Ohio Valley Conference tournament magic ran out after one upset as the seventh-seeded Redhawks put up a strong effort but fell to Austin Peay 76-60 in Thursday night's quarterfinals at Municipal Auditorium.

"I feel like we gave it everything we had. We just came up short," senior guard Anthony Allison said.

Third-seeded Austin Peay advances to tonight's semifinals against second-seeded Morehead State.

Southeast finishes its second year under coach Dickey Nutt with a 10-22 record.

"I thought we competed hard. We laid it all on the line," said Nutt, who led Southeast to the program's first OVC tournament appearance since the 2006-07 season.

The Redhawks entered Thursday's game with confidence after notching the program's first OVC tournament win since the 2004-05 campaign, rolling past Eastern Kentucky 65-49 on Wednesday.

That came after Southeast had lost to the Colonels by 12 and 13 points during the regular season.

Upsetting Austin Peay (20-12) figured to be even more daunting.

The Govs blitzed the Redhawks by 18 and 23 points this season and had won 22 of the previous 24 matchups with Southeast.

Form held, but the Redhawks made the Govs sweat much more than in this year's two previous meetings during which Southeast held only one lead, at 2-0 in the first matchup Dec. 2.

"We gave it our all," junior guard Marcus Brister said.

Southeast was ahead by four points midway through the opening half before Austin Peay took the lead for good with just less than eight minutes left.

It was 41-32 at halftime and 48-36 early in the final period, but the Govs couldn't shake the Redhawks until very late.

Southeast pulled within six points twice, including with seven minutes left. The Redhawks still trailed by just eight with a little more than four minutes left before the Govs finally pulled away for good.

"This was a much tougher game for us than the other two we played with them," Austin Peay coach Dave Loos said. "I think that's a compliment to Southeast Missouri. They had a lot of fight in them.

"The score is not indicative of what type of game it was."

Point guard Caleb Brown, Austin Peay's lone senior, did the most damage to Southeast. He entered play averaging 7.8 points but poured in a career-high 28.

"I was just picking my spots I guess," said Brown, who hit 9 of 11 field-goal attempts and 9 of 12 free throws. "I was just trying to help out the team any way I could."

Allison paced Southeast with a career-high 24 points. He hit 8 of 15 from the field, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and went 5 of 5 from the line.

"Allison was a handful," Loos said.

Brister continued his late-season surge with a career-high 13 points.

"Marcus has really been one of our most improved players the last two months," Nutt said.

Junior forward Leon Powell was bottled up all night. Southeast's top scorer finished with just five points, failing to reach double figures for only the sixth time this season.

Powell, the nation's leader in field-goal shooting at 64 percent, made just 2 of 8 as Austin Peay trapped him all night.

"Their game plan was to shut him down," Nutt said.

Sophomore guard Marland Smith, who blistered the nets for 20 points the previous night, made just 2 of 10 shots and scored only five points.

Nutt received a technical foul with 7 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first half immediately after Southeast was whistled for a foul on a basket that put Austin Peay up 18-17. It was part of an 11-0 run that erased a 17-13 deficit.

To that point Southeast had been whistled for seven fouls compared to two for Austin Peay, and the Govs had attempted seven free throws while the Redhawks had gone to the line twice.

The fouls and free throws wound up fairly even until the game's final two minutes, when Austin Peay went to the line eight times, but Nutt thought the damage had been done.

"We were up a point when they just had a storm of free throws. That was disappointing," Nutt said. "But they're a tough team. They come at you with a lot of weapons.

"In the second half they executed fairly well and were able to hit some shots where we weren't."

The Govs shot 52.2 percent in the second half to finish at 47.2 percent. Southeast was under 38 percent in each half and wound up at 37.3 percent.

Despite the loss, Nutt expressed admiration for the way the Redhawks battled through season-long adversity that had them down to just eight players for the final few weeks of the year.

And Nutt believes the future is bright for a team that bettered its win total by three and its OVC finish by two spots from the coach's first season.

The Redhawks will get several key players eligible next year and expect to have several injured players who missed most of this season back at full strength while adding key recruits.

"I'm most proud of our team, the way we competed," Nutt said. "I feel like the future is going to be good."