Redhawks make season-high 11 3-pointers in Tennessee State rout

Rahmena Henderson scored 19 points to lead the Redhawks past the Tigers of Tennessee State 77-59 on Thursday at the Show Me Center.

15 of Henderson’s points came on three-point baskets. As a team, the Redhawks shot a season-high 11-of-24 from the arc.

“I think just being patient overall for us, just not letting them speed us up,” Henderson said. “That’s what we worked on a lot in practice because the last game, we messed up a lot with that. So coming into this game, we just know how to be patient and play our game.”

It was a vast improvement from SEMO’s 0-of-16 shooting performance this past weekend against Tennessee Tech. SEMO head coach Rekha Patterson said she compared the film from that game and their road win at Morehead State to find the remedy for her Redhawks.

“What we found is when we get paint touches and extra passes, those are great shots in rhythm for us. When we watched against Morehead State, we took a few too many contested shots, we didn't get to the corner, they weren't wide open, and so we were looking more for that today. They did an amazing job of seeing that on film, and then coming out here today and getting those looks so a lot of credit goes to the players from watching it and coming out executing but that was really our focus.”

Patterson also credited her players’ commitment to working on improving their shot in the past four days.

“They do put the time in the gym,” Patterson said. “Shout out to our rec center that allows us to come over there and set up our shooting machines and our players come in for about 20 minutes once or twice a week and they get up shots.

“You have confidence,” she said, “and when you put in the time, you can feel confident on the floor and I think that's kind of what happened.”

Jaliyah Green scored 12 points eight assists, six rebounds, and a pair of three-pointers. Sophie Bussard scored 11 and Kiyley Flowers chipped in 10 for the Redhawks.

Unlike the Redhawks, the Tigers hardly bothered with the three-point line. Of Tennessee State’s 52 field goal attempts (22 made shots), only six of them came from above the arc.

While it seemed that the Tigers were simply going with what had a higher rate of success, Flowers said the Redhawks' defense forcing their offense to rush made a difference.

“We were able to sit back and rely on our help,” Flowers said. “Because if we did close out long, we knew someone was going to be there to help us. It was just a difference in preparing.”

Erica Haynes-Overton led the Tigers with 14 points, while Saniah Parker provided 10 points.

SEMO has won four of its last five games to pull up to fifth place in the Ohio Valley Conference Standings. The Redhawks are 8-2 at the Show Me Center with four home games remaining in the regular season.

The Redhawks travel to take on the OVC-leading Eastern Illionis Panthers on Saturday at 1 p.m.