Redhawks' skid hits 16 games vs. Murray

Kenard Moore and Jaycen Herring tried their best to outscore Murray State by themselves.

It worked for almost a half.

But the odds of Southeast Missouri State's two seniors being able to keep up their torrid pace weren't good.

So the end result of Tuesday's college basketball game at the Show Me Center was fairly predictable.

MSU extended the nation's longest active Division I losing streak with a 79-60 victory.

The Redhawks (3-24, 0-16 Ohio Valley Conference) suffered their 16th consecutive defeat, which ties a school record. They recently broke the school mark for losses in a season, which had been 22.

"It's frustrating," Herring, a 6-foot-5 forward, said. "I'm just competitive. I like to win."

Moore and Herring, Southeast's only scoring threats since the recent dismissal of junior center Calvin Williams, combined for 31 first-half points as the Redhawks entered the break down 42-37.

Moore, a 6-0 guard, hit all five of his 3-point attempts in the opening period on his way to 19 points. Herring made both of his 3-pointers and had 12 points. They combined to shoot 10 of 16 overall in the opening half.

"It was a pretty good first half," Southeast acting coach Zac Roman said. "We made a lot of shots."

But Roman didn't think the Redhawks defended well, and that eventually caught up to them as the Racers shot 54.4 for the game.

Moore and Herring eventually either ran out of steam or ran into much better defense as the pair combined to miss all four of their second-half 3-pointers.

Moore scored just six more points to finish with 25. Herring tacked on nine points to wind up with 21.

Southeast's other five scholarship players combined for 14 points -- and six of those came in the final minutes during garbage time.

Besides Moore and Herring, who shot a combined 16 of 30, the rest of the team went 5 of 17.

"They played good help defense," Moore said of his inability to shake loose in the second half.

Herring said the Redhawks talked at halftime about MSU's impending surge.

"We knew they were going to make a run," Herring said. "It came. We weren't ready for it, I guess."

Moore and Herring both acknowledged that fatigue set in, but they refused to use it as an excuse.

"We've been playing shorthanded all year," said Herring of a squad that has had no more than eight scholarship players available this season and has been going with seven since Williams' dismissal. "Fatigue has always been there. We just have to play through it."

Roman said it would be nice if the Redhawks had others step up offensively.

"You always want to have that third or fourth option," he said.

While Southeast relied on two scorers, the Racers (15-10, 10-5) relied on depth and balance to remain hot.

MSU has won seven of its last eight games and remained fourth in the 10-team OVC.

Four players scored in double figures for the Racers, led by sophomore guard Isacc Miles with 24 points.

"They had four guys in double figures, we had two. That's the difference," Roman said.

There were other differences, like MSU's 40-16 advantage on points in the paint, the Racers' 34-21 rebounding edge -- the squads were tied on the boards 15-15 at halftime -- and their 10 3-pointers after they had been averaging five per game.

"We gave up 10 3-pointers to a team that makes five a game. We gave up 40 points in the paint," said Roman, whose squad had just 11 turnovers. "We played well at times. Just not enough to beat Murray tonight."

The Racers opened a 10-point lead in the first three minutes of the second half, and the margin never dipped under 10 again.

MSU's biggest advantage was 23 points.

"They have a lot of pieces to the puzzle," Roman said.

Southeast, which has dropped a school-record 23 straight OVC games dating back to last season, will have two more chances for a conference win. Both contests are on the road next week.

The Redhawks close out their home schedule Saturday against Northern Illinois in the BracketBuster matchup.