Samford ends Redhawks' streak

~ Southeast women handed 73-50 loss, fail to claim OVC title outright.

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team can still win an outright Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship.

But Samford made sure it would not happen on the Bulldogs' watch.

Visiting Samford snapped the Redhawks' 12-game winning streak Thursday in stunningly easy fashion, 73-50.

It was Southeast's worst regular-season OVC loss since a 94-67 defeat to Eastern Kentucky in January of the 2001-02 campaign.

And it marked Southeast's worst loss to a conference opponent since Austin Peay romped 85-61 in the finals of the 2002-03 OVC tournament.

"We got embarrassed, and that responsibility falls on my shoulders," Southeast coach John Ishee said. "We weren't ready to play. That was obvious. I could tell yesterday. We had a terrible practice.

"And we got beat by a very good team that can embarrass you. We got beat by a far superior team in every aspect of the game tonight."

Southeast entered play already having been assured of at least a share of its third straight OVC regular-season championship.

The Redhawks still have one more shot to capture the crown outright, by beating visiting Jacksonville State in Saturday's regular-season finale.

Or a loss by second-place Samford at Eastern Illinois on Saturday would also do the trick.

But that appeared to be of little consolation to the Redhawks (21-7, 16-3) after they suffered their third OVC home loss of the season. Southeast went 10-0 on the road in conference play.

"I don't know what to say about it," senior guard Ashley Lovelady said. "They executed better than we did, and they hit shots."

Samford (22-7, 15-4), the only squad that can mathematically catch Southeast, has won 14 of its last 16 games, while the Redhawks lost for just the second time in 19 games.

Little went right for Southeast as Samford shredded the Redhawks' normally stout defense with its Princeton-style offense that relies on constant motion and cuts.

"It's hard to guard them, all those cuts and screens," senior center Missy Whitney said. "You have to be on your toes."

Southeast had been allowing an OVC-low 56.9 points per game. Teams were shooting less than 40 percent from the field against the Redhawks, and less than 32 percent from 3-point range.

Samford shot 51.9 percent overall (27-of-52) and 43.5 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-23).

"They made shots and got back-door layups," Ishee said.

Southeast shot 34.6 percent (18-of-52), including 23.1 percent on 3-pointers (3-of-13).

The Redhawks got the game's first basket for their only lead. After that it was pretty much all Samford.

The Bulldogs led 35-25 at halftime and their advantage was at least 12 points for the final 16 minutes. The margin never got below 15 points in the last 13 minutes, and Southeast's biggest deficit was 26 points.

Whitney led Southeast with 13 points, while freshman guard Emily London paced Samford with 18 points.