Patterson gets burst of life, experience from transfer tandem

With the recent changes to the transfer portal giving NCAA athletes the liberty to move more freely between universities, the transfer portal can make – or break – a team’s chances at contending.

For the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks women’s basketball team, the transfer portal giveth as Rahmena Henderson and Kiyley Flowers have emerged as two of the Redhawks’ key go-to options as the season draws near its close.

“I appreciate the fact that they bought into that,” Redhawks coach Rekha Patterson said. “They believed that we were more and that they could come in and help us get back to what we had been doing prior to last year.”

Henderson and Flowers combined for a total of 61 minutes in Saturday’s win against Southern Indiana, and the defensive prowess of the two came in clutch as Flowers’ nine steals paired with Henderson’s four contributed 13 of the Redhawks’ 18 steals, pushing the home side to a 63-59 win against the Screaming Eagles.

“We recruit our kids to play,” Patterson said. “Everybody may not play, but all of them are recruited to play. We’ll use that, that they came in and they were able to help us.”

This season, Henderson and Flowers have combined for 15.6 points per game to give Southeast Missouri State a winning edge in the revamped Ohio Valley Conference. Henderson is second among the Redhawks with 9.8 points per game in conference play, while Kiyley Flowers leads all Redhawks by a fair margin with 69 steals this year.

Rahmena Henderson joined the Redhawks this past offseason, classifying as a junior after spending the past two years of junior college ball at Kilgore College and the year prior at Division I Sam Houston State, where she appeared in 21 games.

Henderson dominated the junior college ranks, scoring 15.6 points per game to pair with 6.4 rebounds spanning across 32.5 minutes per game before getting the chance to move back up into Division I to play at Southeast Missouri State.

Kiyley Flowers joined the Redhawks this past offseason as well, transferring out of the Western Athletic Conference’s Grand Canyon University, which finished as runners-up in its conference tournament at the end of the 2021-22 season.

Flowers averaged 3.8 points and 2.4 minutes in 18.5 minutes per game before electing to transfer to the Ohio Valley Conference at the end of the year.

With multiple years of eligibility left for both Henderson and Flowers, the Redhawks are poised for contention as Patterson puts a spotlight on the development of her squad.

“We’re excited about the fact that they’re still somewhat young,” Patterson said. “They’re young, and they can continue to grow and get better.”