Redhawks men drop heartbreaker

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. -- The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team was so close to a huge road win Thursday night that the Redhawks could taste it.

Instead, they suffered their most excruciating loss of the season.

A flurry of late turnovers prevented Southeast from taking control down the stretch.

Jacksonville State, allowed to hang around, wiped out its deficit on a go-ahead 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left and posted a 58-55 victory.

"It's very disappointing," said first-year Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, visibly upset. "We deserved to win that game."

The Redhawks (6-14, 3-7) remained eighth in the 10-team Ohio Valley Conference.

JSU (9-11, 5-5), which lost to Southeast 78-66 on Jan. 4 in Cape Girardeau, moved into a tie for fifth place.

"We had control. Just a couple of possessions down the stretch," junior forward Jajuan Maxwell said. "We played hard. We played tough. We were in there. It was our game to win.

"It's frustrating, but we just have to bounce back."

In a tight, back-and-forth affair that featured 11 ties, nine lead changes and no advantage larger than eight points, Southeast led for most of the final nine minutes.

A basket by junior guard Sam Pearson with about nine minutes left put Southeast up 46-44.

Both squads struggled to score after that, but the Redhawks still were ahead 53-49 with less than three minutes remaining.

Southeast had a chance to put the hammer down, but four of its 15 turnovers on the night came in the final 2:16.

"We were careless with the ball at times," Pearson said. "We definitely had a chance to win. We let it slip out of our hands."

Said Nutt: "You have to make the plays at the end. Three costly turnovers [in the final 1:21] out of five possessions. Just poor play. We let some baby pressure bother us."

After Pearson put Southeast ahead 53-49 on a tough baseline shot with just more than three minutes left, Pearson drew a charge at the other end that wiped out a JSU basket.

But Southeast immediately turned over the ball.

That led to a JSU bucket, then after a Southeast miss, the Gamecocks made two free throws with 1:23 left for a 53-53 tie.

Southeast committed another turnover, but JSU missed a shot.

The Redhawks let most of the shot clock run down before Pearson drove through several defenders from the top of the key for a left-handed layup with 23 seconds left that put Southeast back up 55-53.

Then came a sequence that Nutt and the Redhawks probably replayed in their sleep.

JSU threw a bad pass and barely saved it before it went out of bounds, but the ball went right to Southeast freshman guard Marland Smith in front of the JSU bench.

Smith appeared to have it firmly in his grasp, but it somehow bounced out of his hands and rolled out of bounds with 11.5 seconds left.

Given a reprieve, JSU junior guard Jeremy Bynum drilled a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left to put the Gamecocks ahead 56-55. It was their first lead since early in the second half.

The Redhawks still had a chance, but in trying to rush the ball past midcourt, they committed their final turnover of the night with 2.8 seconds left.

JSU junior guard Nick Murphy was fouled immediately and hit both free throws. Pearson's half-court heave bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

"The guy [Bynum] hit a big shot, but we still had a chance at the end," Pearson said.

Freshman guard Derek Thompson led Southeast with 18 points, 15 in the first half. Pearson scored 13 points.

Maxwell had his first double-double of the campaign with 13 points and 11 rebounds, both season highs.

Maxwell, among only four returning Southeast players from last year, had not played in two of the past three games and saw less than a minute of action in the other because of what Nutt deemed to be subpar practice efforts.

"My head wasn't in it for a while," Maxwell said. "I had to go back to the basics, push myself. I had to keep a positive attitude because I wanted to get in there and help my teammates."

Said Nutt: "He's got to understand you've got to practice. I was really proud of the effort he gave us. He gave us a lot of effort all week long [in practice]."

Southeast lost despite limiting OVC scoring leader Trenton Marshall to 14 points, nearly five below his average. Marshall torched the Redhawks for 37 points in the earlier meeting.

The Redhawks again were without junior forward Cameron Butler.

Butler, Southeast's No. 3 scorer and No. 2 rebounder, missed his fifth straight game with a foot injury.

Southeast concludes its two-game road trip Saturday at Tennessee Tech (11-10, 5-5). Southeast lost to the Eagles 82-73 on Jan. 2 in Cape.

"We needed another big road win tonight, but hopefully we can get one Saturday and come back from this trip 1-1," Pearson said.