Redhawks drop another road game

~ Southeast has lost six of their last seven games, including five away from home

Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team's hopes of winning consecutive games were crushed Saturday night.

The Redhawks lost 79-58 to Western Illinois at Western Hall in Macomb, Ill. Southeast has lost six of its last seven games as its record dropped to 3-7.

Southeast played even with Western Illinois and led 7-6 4 minutes, 20 seconds into the game before the Leathernecks (5-5) took control.

"I'm going to be honest, it was mindboggling," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I really felt we had a couple of good practices coming in, coming off the SIU victory. I know it is challenging to play on the road. I thought we started the game pretty well. Olivia [Hackmann] made a couple shots and we were kind of back and forth, but Western just kept on coming at us and we just didn't have the toughness tonight to get stops and that's kind of what it came down to quite honestly."

It didn't help the Redhawks' cause that Patricia Mack picked up two fouls in six seconds and went to the bench less than 3 minutes into the game with the score tied 2-2.

"She's our tough player, our fifth-year senior that we really need on the court," Margenthaler said. "I know that it really kind of was a blow to the team early, but unfortunately we just didn't respond to that."

Western Illinois went on a 9-1 run to make it 16-7 with 12:28 left in the half before consecutive shots by Olivia Hackmann, who scored Southeast's first nine points, and Kara Wright cut the deficit to five.

The Redhawks pulled within four on a layup by Hillary Lively with 7:03 in the half, but the Leathernecks used an 8-0 run to make it 34-21 less than two minutes later.

Southeast trailed 41-27 at halftime. Western Illinois' Ashley Luke scored 25 points in the first half. She shot 100 percent from the free throw line on the night with 13 in the first half and four in the second.

"We knew coming in that Ashley Luke was probably one of the, or the best post player in the Summit Conference," Margenthaler said. "She's coming off a 27-point performance against the University of Oklahoma. We knew she's very explosive, very strong, and we just did not step up to the challenge. We knew what she was going to do, but she's a tremendous player and she definitely won the battle tonight."

Mack scored Southeast's first points of the second half, but from then Western Illinois went on a 9-0 run to make it 50-29 with 16:39 left in the game.

The Leathernecks extended their lead to 24 points with less than two minutes left in the game, but Mack netted 3 of 4 free throw attempts and Jordan Hunter hit a jumpshot for the final score.

Hackmann led the Redhawks with 14 points. Hunter and Allyson Bradshaw finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Mack had seven points and seven rebounds in 18 minutes of action.

Luke led all scorers with 29 points and had 15 rebounds. Michelle Maher and Tori Niemann had 14 points apiece and Marley Hall finished with 14.

Southeast's next game is against St. Louis University at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Chaifetz Arena. The Redhawks beat the Billikens 59-52 last season.

"I think it's just going to come down one of those games again that who plays a little tougher, smarter, can execute a little bit," Margenthaler said. "One thing about St. Louis, they're a lot different team than we faced last year. They've got a couple new freshmen that are key contributors to their team. They play with a lot of energy. It's going to be a battle, but we've just got to get back to playing hardnosed basketball and hope that we can play well for 40 minutes."