Redhawks' collapse is complete

~ Southeast fails to qualify for OVC tournament after 68-62 loss to Samford.

It's now official.

Southeast Missouri State's major collapse in men's basketball will leave the Redhawks out of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

The Redhawks were eliminated with Thursday night's 68-62 loss to visiting Samford.

"We wanted to make the tournament, but things didn't go our way," said junior forward Jaycen Herring, who led the Redhawks with 18 points.

Not much has gone the Redhawks' way over the past seven weeks or so.

Since winning at Eastern Illinois on Jan. 5 to start its OVC schedule 6-0, Southeast has posted just one more victory.

Riding a seven-game losing streak -- Southeast has lost 13 of its last 14 -- the Redhawks (12-18, 7-12) are assured of finishing ninth in the 11-team OVC. Only the top eight squads qualify for the conference tournament.

"Unfortunately we lost another close one," senior center Mike Rembert said. "The most important thing is we wanted to come out and play hard. I think we did.

"They just made shots when they needed to make them. You can't take that away from them."

Samford (14-14, 10-9) scored the game's final seven points after Southeast had taken a 62-61 lead with under 2 minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs locked up an OVC tournament spot as the eight berths -- in no particular order -- are now accounted for.

Southeast would have needed to beat Samford and also win its regular-season finale Saturday against Jacksonville State, while receiving some help from other teams.

But none of that help matters any longer.

"The effort was there," Southeast coach Scott Edgar said. "I told them I'll take that kind of effort every night."

Edgar lamented several things following the loss.

One was his squad's continued turnover problems. Southeast matched its OVC-worst average with 18 turnovers, while Samford had 11 turnovers.

"The thing that's plagued our team all year. ... we had 18 turnovers. They took 50 shots and we took 47 shots. I would have liked to have those three more shots," Edgar said.

Another was the 3-pointer that Samford's Trey Montgomery banked in from straight on with 2 minutes left, immediately after Southeast had gone ahead 59-58.

"They hit some shots. One that really hurt was when they banked one from the top of the key," Edgar said.

Edgar also lamented that David Johnson -- one of Southeast's three seniors -- missed the final 14 minutes after suffering what appeared to be a hip injury.

"David was having probably his best game of the year. When we needed him the most, he was laid up in the training room," said Edgar, who has been without his top all-around player, senior forward Brandon Foust, for the past 12 games due to an injury.

Junior guard Kenard Moore put the Redhawks ahead for the last time on a conventional three-point play with 1:41 remaining that made it 62-61.

Samford made all the big plays after that, while the Redhawks struggled.

Travis Peterson, Samford's 6-foot-10 senior center, drilled a 3-pointer with 1:22 left that put the Bulldogs up for good, 64-62.

Herring missed a 3-point try, then freshman guard Josh Bedwell hit a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left to make it 67-62.

The Bulldogs left the door open by making just 1-of-5 free throws, but Southeast could not take advantage as the Redhawks had two turnovers and two misses in the last 40 seconds.

Peterson paced four Bulldogs in double digits with 17 points.