Eagles, injuries take toll on Southeast women

~ Morehead State cruised to a 75-37 victory against the Southeast women

MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State was angry after Saturday's loss at Jacksonville State, the Eagles' first Ohio Valley Conference defeat of the season.

Southeast Missouri State was reeling after Saturday's 28-point setback at Eastern Illinois and the loss of two key players.

Those factors combined to make Thursday's women's basketball game a total mismatch as MSU crushed the visiting Redhawks 75-37. It was the fewest points the Eagles have allowed since the 1981-82 season.

OVC preseason favorite MSU improved to 13-6 overall and 6-1 in league play as the Eagles assumed sole possession of first place.

Southeast fell to 5-10 and 2-4. The Redhawks are tied for sixth in the 10-team conference.

"They're definitely an athletic team, they were playing on their home court and they were hitting their shots," sophomore point guard Bianca Beck said.

The Redhawks played their second straight contest without leading scorer Jasmine Davis and third-leading scorer Lauren Sharpe.

Davis, a freshman guard averaging 10 points per game, suffered a season-ending knee injury less than two weeks ago.

Sharpe, a junior wing averaging 7.2 points and ranking among the OVC steals leaders, is out indefinitely with back problems. There is a chance she won't play again this year.

"They're definitely greatly missed," freshman wing Katie Norman said. "But that kind of stuff happens. We have to stick together as a team."

Without Sharpe, Southeast's only three-year squad member, one of the nation's youngest teams is even younger as eight of the Redhawks' 11 available players Thursday were freshmen. Two others were sophomores, with a lone senior.

Southeast started four freshmen and a sophomore.

"When you lose those two, and you play eight freshmen and only have one senior, it makes it tough," Southeast coach John Ishee said.

An experienced MSU squad made Southeast pay. The Eagles used an early 14-0 run to build an 18-6 lead and pretty much pummeled the Redhawks the rest of the way.

Southeast, going the final 5 minutes, 58 seconds of the first half scoreless, trailed 40-17 at the intermission.

The Redhawks put up the first point of the second half to make it 40-18, then MSU ended what little doubt might have been left with a 14-0 burst to lead 54-18. Southeast's biggest deficit was 40 points.

"We have been very, very good the last three days in practice, and after a bad loss at Jacksonville State, we needed a game like this," MSU coach Mike Bradbury said.

MSU buried Southeast with a combination of 3-pointers and aggressive drives to the basket.

The Eagles, leading the nation in 3-pointers made per game (10.2 before Thursday), drained 13 from beyond the arc in 33 attempts for 39.4 percent.

It was MSU's 12th game of double-figure 3-pointers this season as six players made at least one 3-pointer, including a trio with three.

"They're a good team and they shot lights out," Norman said. "On the road, that made it doubly tough."

While MSU was scoring 39 points from beyond the arc, the Redhawks got just nine points from long range as they hit 3 of 14 (21.4 percent).

MSU also dominated in points in the paint (20-8) and points off turnovers (24-4) as Southeast had 20 turnovers compared to seven for the Eagles.

"They're very good because they can score in a variety of ways and they're very athletic," said Ishee, whose team shot just 29.3 percent from the field overall.

Junior guard Chynna Bozeman, the OVC preseason player of year who leads the league in scoring at more than 17 points per game, led the Eagles with 15 points.

Bozeman hit three 3-pointers, increasing her nation's-best total on the season to 60.

Southeast's top scorer was freshman guard Monica Miller with eight points off the bench. Senior center Lesley Adams grabbed 10 rebounds.

That was not nearly enough for the shorthanded, inexperienced Redhawks to hang with MSU.

"We're progressively getting used to it," Beck said of playing without Davis and Sharpe. "We just have to have everybody step up."

Ishee, who did not like Southeast's effort as a unit, said of being without two of his top players: "We don't have a choice."

The Redhawks continue on the road to face third-place Eastern Kentucky (8-8, 5-2) on Saturday.

"They'll also be very good," Ishee said.