Josh Earley’s big day leads Redhawks to win over SIUE

Timely buckets and tenacious defense down the stretch powered the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks to a 52-47 win over the SIUE Cougars.

From the opening tip, it was a back-and-forth affair as it was the Cougars jumping out to a quick 5-2 lead, but the Redhawks went on a 10-4 run to take a 12-9 lead following the under 16 timeout.

“It was really big,” Redhawks forward Josh Earley said of the team’s good start. “I feel like it gave us some really big momentum.”

After SIUE’s Shamar Wright spun home a layup to tie it at 13 with 12:41 remaining in the first half, the two teams went scoreless for nearly five minutes.

Breaking the scoreless drought was Earley who scored inside for two of his eight first half points.

“I was just being patient,” Earley said. “I wanted to take what the defense was giving me. I know that recently since I’ve been scoring more teams have been focused on me more so I just wanted to be patient and take what they were giving me.”

With just over four minutes left in the opening 20 minutes, Evan Eursher drilled a wing three-pointer to give Southeast a 22-18 lead.

The Cougars weren’t going to just roll over however as they ended the first half on a 10-2 run, capped off by a buzzer-beating step back three from Demarco Minor to give the Cougars a 28-24 lead entering halftime.

“In the last couple seconds we just kind of gave up on it,” Earley said. “Coach (Korn) told us we played good first half defense overall.”

Just four minutes into the second half, SIUE would expand its lead to 36-28 courtesy of another three from Minor.

Perhaps the biggest story of the second half was the fouling.

Not even eight minutes into the second half the Redhawks had eight team fouls compared to just one by the Cougars.

The fouling problem, coupled with a scoring drought spanning over five minutes, made things difficult for the Redhawks as they found themselves trailing 38-30 with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

“I think we were just rushing things,” Earley said. “We were getting a little frustrated about the foul count and shots weren’t falling. Once we settled down we were fine.”

Ending the long scoring drought was Aquan Smart who flipped home a layup and drew the foul to cut the Cougars lead to 38-33.

After Smart scored three the hard way, Earley put home back-to-back layups to make it 39-37 Cougars.

“Experience means a lot in college basketball,” Earley said. “We have a young team with a lot of new guys coming in so just to be able to have guys like me, Aquan and Dylan Branson is great.”

As time was dwindling away, Rob Martin drilled back-to-back jumpers with less than two minutes left to give the Redhawks a 46-43 lead.

While Earley was filling up the score sheet offensively, perhaps his biggest play of the game came in the final seconds as he blocked a SIUE layup as the Redhawks were clinging to a 46-45 lead with less than 30 seconds remaining.

“I was just trying to play hard,” Earley said. “I saw that my teammate got beat and I just wanted to come over and help and got the block that possibly helped save the game.”

Earley’s block would prove to be a game-clincher as the Redhawks hung on to win 52-47.

Leading the charge for the Redhawks was Earley who poured in 16 points while also grabbing eight rebounds in the win.

The Redhawks (7-12, 2-4 OVC) hit the road at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25, when they take on UT Martin.

“We can’t get satisfied with this win,” Earley said. “SIUE is a really really good team. The fact that we came out and got this win is momentum for us.”

__ SEMO 52, SIUE 47__

SIUE 28 19 — 47

SEMO 24 28 — 52

SEMO (52) — Josh Earley 16, Rob Martin 10, Adam Larson 6, Evan Eursher 6, Aquan Smart 5, Braxton Stacker 4, Dylan Branson 4, TJ Biel 1. FG: 20. (3-pointers: Eursher 2)

SIUE (47) — Damarcus Minor 21, Shamar Wright 15, Terrance Thompson 6, Lamar Wright 3, Ray’Sean Taylor 2. FG: 17. (3-pointers: Minor 3, S. Wright 1)