Hammered at home: Southeast suffers 84-65 loss to Mastodons at Show Me Center

How much is Southeast Missouri State struggling right now during the early stages of Scott Edgar's coaching tenure?

Seemingly average teams are even routing the Redhawks at the Show Me Center.

Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne, a sixth-year NCAA Division I program, rolled to an 84-65 victory Wednesday night in front of 2,695 mostly stunned fans.

But those spectators probably weren't nearly as surprised as Southeast's players by the way the Mastodons (3-4) had so little trouble with the Redhawks (2-5).

"It's very stunning," Southeast junior swingman David Johnson said. "We should never lose at home, especially not like this."

Southeast Missouri State's Brandon Foust, right, drove the baseline past IPFW's Justin Hawkins on Wednesday.

The Redhawks' previous four losses had all been by at least 20 points, but all four had been away from home.

Southeast's only previous home date resulted in a three-point win over California-Riverside. At worst, the Redhawks expected to also take things down to the wire against the Mastodons.

Instead, the Redhawks continued their early funk under Edgar, Southeast's first-year coach.

Of Southeast's slow start -- it's not just the record but the way the Redhawks are losing -- Johnson said, "It's a shock to everybody. It's a shock to the community, I know, but especially to us.

"We really expected more than this. But we've been working hard and we're going to eventually get it together, I promise."

Wednesday's contest followed the pattern of most of the Redhawks' other games this season as they struggled offensively and on the boards, while the opposition torched Southeast's defense.

The Southeast Missouri State University cheerleaders tried to rouse a crowd of about 2,700. (Don Frazier)

IPFW entered the contest shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range while being outrebounded by an average of nearly five per game.

Against the Redhawks, the Mastodons blistered the nets at a 54.1-percent clip (33 of 61), made 45.8 percent of their 3-pointers (11 of 24) and held a 40-26 rebounding advantage.

On the other end, Southeast shot 39.6 percent (21 of 53), including 28 percent on 3-pointers (seven of 25).

The Redhawks entered the contest shooting 36.9 percent overall -- 28.1 percent from 3-point range -- and were being outrebounded by an average of nearly eight per game.

Southeast was allowing the opposition to shoot 44.6 percent, which is not bad, but opponents were making a healthy 39.8 percent of their 3-pointers and averaging 76.5 points.

"Our defense has really been hurting us a lot lately," Johnson said. "Our shots aren't going to go in every time, but as long as we play defense ... coach gave us our [defensive] assignments, but we just didn't follow through with it."

Said an obviously distressed Edgar: "I think at times we're pressing. We've got great fans, but we've got to start being productive to keep them coming back."

Junior forward Brandon Foust made two free throws just 13 seconds into the game to put the Redhawks ahead 2-0.

After that, it was virtually all IPFW as the Mastodons scored the next nine points and Southeast faced an uphill battle the rest of the way.

"It got off to a poor start defensively with turnovers and easy baskets on their part," said Edgar, whose squad had 10 of its 15 turnovers in the first half. "We had to play catch-up all night. When you play catch-up, you have to play almost perfect."

IPFW, hitting nine of its first 13 shots, led 20-8 less than 6 minutes into the game.

Southeast then had its only really productive stretch of the night, going on a 16-5 run over the next five minutes to pull within 25-24.

After that, however, it was basically all IPFW again. The Mastodons built their lead back up to 12 points late in the period and settled for a 43-34 halftime margin.

The Mastodons scored the first four points of the second half to lead 47-34.

Southeast cut the deficit to 49-41, but IPFW ran off seven straight points to lead 56-41 and the margin never dipped under 10 points the rest of the way.

IPFW built a 71-52 lead with nearly 9 minutes remaining, and Southeast never got closer than 15 points while trailing by as many as 22.

"We just couldn't slow them down," Johnson said.

Johnson led the Redhawks with 16 points -- 13 in the second half -- as he tied his Southeast career high. He hit four of six 3-pointers.

Foust scored 14 points, but just four came after halftime.

A bright spot for the Redhawks was the play of junior college transfer forward Dionte Perry, who had scored just 16 points all season, with a high of four.

Perry scored nine points -- all in the first half -- as he hit seven of eight free throws while seeing extensive action after junior center Mike Rembert got into early foul trouble. Perry also grabbed six rebounds to tie Rembert for team-high honors.

"Without Dionte in the first half, it could have gotten really ugly," Edgar said.

Junior guard Chris Perkins torched the Redhawks for 23 points. He made his first six shots and finished 10 of 16. The junior college transfer's previous high game at IPFW had been nine points. He was averaging 5.2 points.

Also hitting up Southeast for a career high was junior college transfer forward Jaraun Burrows, who scored 16 points. His previous best output had been six points, and he was averaging 2.8.

But it was that kind of night for the Redhawks, who seemingly offered little defensive resistance to the Mastodons.

"We've got to get better defensively," Johnson said.

The Redhawks will have an opportunity Saturday night when they begin Ohio Valley Conference play by hosting Tennessee-Martin (1-6), which is also struggling.

"It's a brand new season," Edgar said. "I told them this is over at midnight."