Road leads Southeast to brink of OVC title

~ The Redhawks moved within a victory of their second straight regular-season OVC crown with a 66-58 win at Samford.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After struggling away from home for much of the season, Southeast Missouri State's women have suddenly turned into road warriors.

The Redhawks' latest road conquest moved them another step closer to their second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title.

Southeast put the clamps on Samford defensively and got career performances from Lachelle Lyles and Tarina Nixon to win 66-58 Thursday night.

By posting their second straight road victory -- and their fifth triumph in a row overall -- the Redhawks improved to 5-4 in OVC road games after going 10-0 in league play at home.

"I think we've been more focused on the road lately," Nixon said. "We're just chasing the OVC title again, finishing on top, and in order to do that we have to win on the road."

One more road victory -- Saturday at last-place Jacksonville State in the regular-season finale -- will give Southeast at least a share of back-to-back OVC championships.

The Redhawks (20-7, 15-4) remained tied for first place with Murray State, which wiped out a seven-point deficit in the final minute of regulation and beat Tennessee Tech 80-79 in overtime Thursday.

Murray State closes out its regular season Saturday at Tennessee-Martin, which has lost just one OVC home game this year.

"It's exciting, knowing we're one win away from winning the OVC again," Lyles said. "We're going to come really focused [Saturday]."

Despite a slow start -- Southeast turned the ball over on its first four possessions and had 13 turnovers in the opening half -- the Redhawks were more than focused enough Thursday.

Southeast held OVC preseason favorite Samford (16-12, 11-8) -- which had won five straight games -- to 29.2-percent shooting on the night.

Leading 29-27 at halftime, the Redhawks broke the game open with a 13-2 run to start the second half.

"We started off a little slow, but we competed hard. We deserved it," Southeast acting head coach John Ishee said. "We hang our hat on defense. We took their post game away and forced them to take a lot of 3's."

Samford made seven of 31 3-pointers in the game.

Lyles, a senior center who leads the nation in rebounding with an average of 17 per game, pulled down 24 more boards Thursday as she closed in on the OVC single-season rebounding record.Lyles, who needs just two more rebounds to break the mark of 448 set by Middle Tennessee State's Robin Hendrix in 1980-81, has seven games this season of at least 20 rebounds. She helped the Redhawks dominate the boards 42-24.

"I didn't know that," a smiling Lyles said of the conference record she will almost certainly set. "That's nice."

In addition, Lyles scored a career-high 17 points in posting her fifth straight double-double and 10th of the season.

"Lachelle just continues to be so relentless on the boards, and she scored well tonight," Ishee said. "She had another great game."

So did Nixon, a sophomore guard who tied her career high with 22 points while also leading Southeast with three assists and four steals.

Nixon, among the OVC's top 3-point shooters, moved up the ranks by making four of five from beyond the arc against the Bulldogs. As a team, the Redhawks were seven of 15 on 3-pointers.

"Tarina is really the glue to this team," Ishee said.

Sophomore guard Sonya Daugherty added 20 points for the Redhawks, 12 coming in the first half.

Southeast won despite leading scorer Missy Whitney struggling offensively -- she had just two points, which is 12 below her average -- although Whitney played strong defense on Samford star Alex Munday, who scored 13 points but made just three of 10 shots.

"Everybody who played contributed," said Ishee, whose squad had only five second-half turnovers. "We have to have that to win."

Daugherty scored seven points during the Redhawks' 13-2 run at the outset of the second half that gave them a 42-29 lead.

Samford got no closer than five points the rest of the way, and Nixon made six of six free throws in the final two minutes to help ice the game.

"We played focused and together," Nixon said.

In addition to closing in on consecutive OVC regular-season titles, Southeast has also now posted at least 20 victories for the third year in a row. Those are the only 20-win campaigns since the program moved to Division I in 1991-92.

"This team is doing some great things, and we're playing to defend a championship," Ishee said.

They're one win away.