Men look for two in a row

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team finally got back on track Monday night.

Although the lopsided win came against an overmatched NAIA opponent, the Redhawks hope it provides momentum and confidence as they resume their most travel-heavy period of the season.

Southeast (4-4) finishes up a stretch that has it playing seven of eight games away from Cape Girardeau with three straight true road contests beginning today at 6 p.m. against New Orleans (2-3).

Southeast Missouri State coach Dickey Nutt directs his team during a game earlier this month. (Laura Simon)

New Orleans also visits Southeast on Dec. 19 as the nonconference opponents play a unique home-and-home series.

The Redhawks face Southeastern Louisiana at 4 p.m. Saturday. They then return to Cape Girardeau before finishing up their grueling stretch Tuesday night at 16th-ranked Missouri.

Southeast Missouri State head coach Ty Margenthaler motions to players during the second half of a game against Arkansas State on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, at the Show Me Center. SEMO won 56-52. (Kristin Eberts)

"I told our team before the year that this will be our toughest stretch of the season," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "It's very difficult to win on the road. It's been a tough stretch for us but hopefully in the long run it will make us a tougher, better basketball team."

Southeast began the rugged stretch by winning at Chattanooga for its lone road victory of the season. The Redhawks then lost neutral site matchups to Louisiana Tech and Troy -- both played in Chattanooga -- before falling at Illinois-Chicago.

The Redhawks snapped their three-game losing streak Monday, routing Hannibal-LaGrange 96-55. Southeast is 3-0 at home, although two of the wins are against NAIA squads.

"We've got our heads on straight," senior guard Corey Wilford said. "Work hard in practice and it'll carry over into the games."

Sophomore forward Nino Johnson said the Redhawks have plenty of confidence, especially considering their recent three-game skid featured nothing but narrow defeats.

"Just some little wrinkles here and there we need to fix," Johnson said. "Every game we've lost, we played terrible and still [were] close. Just think if we're playing good."

New Orleans is back to Division I status after the Privateers, due to serious budget concerns, had planned to downsize their program to a lower division.

The Privateers went 17-15 last season, including 13-2 at home, while primarily playing a non-Division I schedule.

New Orleans played its first four games this year at home, beating San Jose State and Blue Mountain College while losing to SIU Carbondale and Bethune-Cookman.

The Privateers had their first road contest Monday, falling at Nicholls State 92-79.

Lovell Cook, a 6-foot-6 senior forward, is the Privateers' top scorer with a 14-point average. He's shooting 61.1 percent from the field.

Cook also paced last year's squad at 14 points per game.

Rarlensee Nelson, a 5-8 senior point guard, is among the nation's leaders in assists with 45 against just 15 turnovers.

"New Orleans will be a big test. Every time you go on somebody's floor it's a big challenge," Nutt said. "These next three games will be very challenging, but the good thing is that after this our toughest stretch of the year will be over."

Saturday's game with Southeastern Louisiana (1-3 prior to a Wednesday night game at Louisiana Tech) will be a rematch of last year's meeting in Cape Girardeau won by the Redhawks 63-61 in overtime.

The Lions, 12-17 last season, have faced a brutal schedule featuring road losses at Wisconsin, Marquette and New Mexico State.

Southeastern Louisiana is led by 6-3 senior guard Brandon Fortenberry, a preseason first-team all-Southland Conference selection who missed last year's final 22 games with a foot injury.

Fortenberry was averaging 17.6 points at the time of his injury. He averaged 9.8 points through the first four games this season.