Govs veto Redhawks' upset bid

Southeast Missouri State bounced back from Saturday's debacle against Murray State with a strong performance.

Yet all the Redhawks had to show for it was another gut-wrenching Ohio Valley Conference loss.

Austin Peay got a go-ahead 3-point basket with 18 seconds remaining Monday night and beat the host Redhawks 75-73.

That makes it two OVC home losses in a span of three days for the Redhawks, who were blasted 85-67 by Murray State on Saturday.

"We fought hard to the end," said Southeast junior center Mike Rembert, who led the Redhawks with 17 points despite playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble. "It's disappointing."

Southeast has two major disappointments against the league-leading Governors this season, including a 68-67 setback on Jan. 13 in Clarksville, Tenn.

But it's been that kind of contrasting seasons for the teams.

While Austin Peay (14-6, 11-1) has found a way to win virtually every night out in conference play, the Redhawks (8-15, 6-8) have suffered one crushing defeat after another.

That explains why the Govs -- riding an 11-game winning streak -- are in first place and the Redhawks have sunk to eighth place in the 11-team conference.

"The years you win conference championships, as they're doing now, these are the kinds of games you win," said Southeast coach Scott Edgar.

Six of the Redhawks' eight league losses have been by a total of 17 points, with five of them by a combined 10 points.

Yet the Redhawks could have likely avoided four of those defeats had they performed better in one area that the opposition cannot defend against: free-throw shooting.

In that earlier one-point loss at Austin Peay, and in three-point setbacks to Tennessee State and Jacksonville State, Southeast shot less than 60 percent from the charity stripe.

It happened again Monday. Southeast was 17 of 30 from the line (56.7 percent). The Redhawks entered play 10th in the OVC in foul shooting at 62 percent.

"You can point to a lot of things. That was one of them," Edgar said.

Asked if there is any explanation for the Redhawks' season-long struggles at the free-throw line, Edgar said: "There really isn't. We shoot enough of them {in practice}."

Take away their troubles from the charity stripe and the Redhawks largely played well, as did the Govs.

"It was a great college game. We just came out on the short end of the stick," Edgar said.

Despite having several key players in early foul trouble, the Redhawks never trailed in the first half and led 41-28 at the break.

Southeast got a huge first-half lift from reserve freshman guard Johnny Hill, who hit two of three 3-pointers and scored 10 points.

With Rembert playing just nine first-half minutes after picking up two fouls, reserve forward Dionte Perry helped pick up the inside slack by hitting all three of his shots and scoring six points.

"Johnny was great in the first half," Edgar said. "Him and Dionte both were great off the bench."

Austin Peay started the second half strong, needing less than six minutes to pull into a 46-46 tie.

"We came out aggressive in the first half. We wanted to set the tone," said Rembert, who missed the earlier meeting with Austin Peay while serving a one-game OVC suspension for receiving two technicals during the previous contest. "Unfortunately we came out a little slow in the second half and they got the momentum."

The lead changed hands twice before junior guard Todd Babbington's 3-pointer with 8:15 remaining put the Govs on top 60-57.

Austin Peay kept the lead for nearly five minutes until senior guard Terrick Willoughby's layup at the 3:27 mark capped a 5-0 Southeast run and forged a 67-67 tie.

There were two ties and three lead changes in the final two minutes. Southeast led twice by two points in the late going, including 73-71 on Rembert's layup with 32 seconds left.

Babbington drained a 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining for a 74-73 Austin Peay advantage.

Southeast junior guard David Johnson hit the side of the backboard on a shot with nine seconds left and Babbington made one of two free throws a second later.

The Redhawks, needing to go the length of the court after a timeout, tried to get the ball inside to Rembert, but it was tipped out of bounds with eight-tenths of a second left.

Foust, inbounding under Austin Peay's basket, threw a lob pass toward Rembert in the lane but it was knocked away as the buzzer sounded.

Hill finished with 14 points and Foust, still somewhat hobbled by an ankle injury, added 10 points and nine rebounds.

Sophomore forward Drake Reed led the Govs with 23 points. Babbington had 14.

Southeast played without starting freshman point guard Roderick Pearson, who served an OVC suspension for receiving two technicals Saturday.