Redhawks improve to 4-3 with road victory

~ Foust scored a team-high 17 points in the Redhawks' 59-54 win.

RUSTON, La. -- As his players prepared to get off the bus outside the Thomas Assembly Center before Wednesday night's game, Scott Edgar had a few words for them.

"Road wins are sweet," the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach said.

Maybe not always pretty, but definitely sweet.

Southeast's contest against Louisiana Tech was a perfect example.

The Redhawks and Bulldogs plodded through a largely pedestrian affair -- mainly because of the host team's deliberate style -- but Southeast was all smiles following its 59-54 victory.

"We were trying to play hard and get a road win," said Southeast senior forward Brandon Foust, who led the Redhawks with 17 points. "Get a little streak going."

As the Redhawks braced for their return trip to Cape Girardeau of more than eight hours, they had reason to be in a good mood.

By beating the Bulldogs (1-4), Southeast (4-3) moved over the .500 mark for the first time under Edgar.

Last year, in Edgar's rookie season, the Redhawks lost their first three games and never got to the break-even point.

The Redhawks also posted their first nonconference road win over a Division I opponent under Edgar.

Southeast beat Longwood over the weekend, but that was at a neutral site in Chicago. Last year, the Redhawks' only nonleague road victory came over Division II Alaska-Fairbanks.

"It's great. All those things are nice," said Edgar, whose squad has a two-game winning streak. "I'm really happy for them that they're 4-3."

But it didn't come easily against the undersized but scrappy Bulldogs, who are under a first-year coach after losing virtually all of their key players from last season's team that beat Southeast 72-56 in Cape Girardeau.

The Bulldogs, draining the shot clock on most possessions, controlled the tempo in the first half and carried a 25-24 lead into the break.

"I felt OK at the half," Edgar said. "We were down only one and nobody was in foul trouble."

Tech scored the first four points of the second half to go up 29-24, matching its biggest lead of the night.

But Southeast finally got aggressive on offense and took the ball to the basket instead of settling for outside shots.

The Redhawks hit 5-of-8 field-goal attempts during a 12-0 run that gave them a 36-29 lead with about 14 minutes remaining.

"We pretty much wanted to come out and raise the tempo," said junior swingman Jaycen Herring, who scored all 12 of his points in the final period. "We did a good job in the second half."

Southeast never got ahead by more than seven points, but also never let the Bulldogs catch up as the Redhawks kept attacking the hoop.

The Redhawks shot 57.1 percent in the second half (12-of-21) and only attempted two 3-pointers. Most of the baskets came from within a few feet.

"We wanted to be aggressive," said Foust, who hit 7-of-11 shots. "We wanted to take control of the game in the first four minutes of the second half."

Southeast led 54-47 with under 4 minutes remaining when Tech made a final push.

Tech trailed 57-54 when Kyle Gibson missed an open 3-pointer from the corner with 10 seconds left. Sophomore point guard Roderick Pearson hit two free throws with 6.7 seconds left to close things out.

"It's a very good win for us," Edgar said.

In addition to the hot second-half shooting, Edgar liked several other things about Southeast's performance.

The Redhawks had only 11 turnovers -- four in the final half -- after they entered the game averaging 19.5 turnovers.

And Tech hit only 3-of-20 from 3-point range (15 percent), after Southeast had been allowing the opposition to shoot nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc.

"Those are two things we talked about needing to get better at," Edgar said.