Redhawks take step back, lose to Racers

~ Southeast was trounced 85-67 in front of the largest home crowdso far this season.

Southeast Missouri State had been playing so well lately, even when the Redhawks lost, it was by narrow margins to some of the Ohio Valley Conference's best teams.

Not Saturday night.

The Redhawks laid an egg -- a big one -- as Murray State crushed them 85-67.

A season-high Show Me Center crowd announced at 4,894 showed up to hopefully watch Southeast win for the sixth time in its last eight games and sweep the regular-season series from the Racers for the first time.

Southeast didn't even come close. The Redhawks led just once all night -- after scoring the opening basket -- trailed by 10 points at halftime and fell behind by 23 points midway through the second half.

"I'm going to give them credit," Southeast senior guard Terrick Willoughby said. "They came to play. I don't think we came to play the way we should have.

"I thought we'd be ready, but we just flat out lost. No excuses. They came to play and they beat us."

Southeast coach Scott Edgar was disappointed that the Redhawks did not give their big crowd a worthy performance.

"I told the guys after the game it was disappointing for them ... if you remember, at the start of the year, our attendance was almost ground zero, and now we almost have 5,000," he said.

Southeast fell to 8-14 overall and 6-7 in OVC play as the Redhawks remained in seventh place, but they now trail fourth-place Murray (9-11, 7-5) by 1 1/2 games.

The Redhawks had lost just two of their last seven games, with those defeats coming by one point at first-place Austin Peay and by seven points at home against third-place Tennessee Tech, in a contest that was tied in the closing minutes.

That's part of the reason the Redhawks were so stunned by Saturday's lopsided setback, especially since they beat the Racers 96-85 in Murray, Ky., on Jan. 8.

"We are surprised," junior guard David Johnson said. "When we went to their house, we had the intensity up, but they had the intensity tonight."

How ugly were things for the Redhawks?

Southeast shot just 27.1 percent from the field (16 of 59) and made only seven of 33 3-pointers (21.2 percent).

On the defensive end, the Racers got just about any shot they wanted and hit 56.1 percent (32 of 57).

"We were just missing a lot of open shots and we weren't getting back on defense," Johnson said.

Junior forward Brandon Foust scored 12 points for the Redhawks and Johnson added 11, but they combined for just eight first-half points.

Junior guard Bruce Carter and freshman forward Danero Thomas paced the Racers with 16 points apiece.

"Defensively, that's the best we've played for two halves," Murray coach Billy Kennedy said. "It's the best we've played against a good SEMO team who has been playing really well."

Trailing 38-28 at halftime, Southeast pulled within 38-31 early in the final period.

But the Racers then began to pull away for good.

Southeast fell behind 49-36 with a little more than 15 minutes still remaining when Edgar appeared to intentionally draw a technical foul in the hopes he could inspire his players.

But nothing was working on this night. Murray scored five quick points after the technical.

When freshman forward Tony Easley threw down a dunk after a Southeast turnover, the Racers led 60-40 with more than 12 minutes left as the approximately 100 Murray fans at the Show Me Center roared their approval while Southeast's supporters sat in stunned silence.

The Racers led by 23 points four times, the last at 74-51 with under seven minutes to play.

Southeast closed to within 13 points late, but that was nothing but window dressing.

"We just got outplayed tonight," Willoughby said.

To make matters even worse, freshman point guard Roderick Pearson received two of the game's five technical fouls -- three on Southeast and two on Murray.

Pearson wasn't actually ejected -- which is normally the case with two technicals -- because his final technical was his fifth foul.

But it's likely that Pearson will have to miss Monday's game with Austin Peay because OVC regulations stipulate than any player ejected from a contest must sit out the next game.

That happened earlier to Southeast, when junior center Mike Rembert received two technicals at Murray State and had to miss the ensuing contest at Austin Peay.

It was that kind of night all the way around for the Redhawks, who will try to bounce back Monday.

"We've always recovered from losses and I expect us to do that [Monday]," Willoughby said.