Season’s buzzer-beatings: Rob Martin drains game-winner for SEMO in overtime

There’s no better way for the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks to begin their Ohio Valley Conference title defense than with a 93-91 overtime win over Southern Indiana on Friday, Dec. 29, at the Show Me Center.

Rob Marin was the star of the show for the Redhawks. The sophomore guard scored 29 points and made the buzzer-beater in overtime to seal SEMO its first conference win of the season.

“I just got to my spot and knocked down the shot,” Martin said. “I knew it was good.

Along with Martin, Aquan Smart scored 19 points and Adam Larson added 11 points with a 3-of-7 clip from the three-point line.

Smart was the first to congratulate Martin after making the winning shot.

“I thought it was a good shot,” Smart said. “I felt like [head coach Brad Korn] let us play that possession and Rob had a great shot.”

The non-conference games at the beginning of the 2023-24 season were mere dress rehearsals for the real performances. How the Redhawks fare against OVC competition is what truly matters.

And for one night, they passed the test.

“I feel like the pieces are coming together right now,” Smart said. “So a win to start conference play is always a good way to start.”

The Screaming Eagles forced overtime after Jack Campion put up an off-balanced prayer from the three-point line that seemed to go in before the buzzer to force overtime at 74-74. It was his only made three-pointer of the game, as finished with five points, five fouls, and a 1-for-5 clip from the arch.

Campion’s buzzer-beater came after Martin drained a pair of free throws to stop a 9-1 USI run that dropped the SEMO lead to a single point with 20 seconds left in the second half.

That run was in response to Smart sparking a 7-0 SEMO run with a layup and dunk in transition to push the Redhawks lead to 71-62 with two minutes remaining in the second half.

The Redhawks spent much of the second half maintaining their lead, being up as much as 12 points after a three-point jumper by Larson with 15:22 left in the game. The lead started to slowly shrink as the Redhawks went from being up 51-39 to 64-62 with four minutes to go in the game.

The Redhawks trailed 27-23 with four minutes remaining in the first half before surging to take a 34-32 halftime lead thanks to TJ Biel making a three-point jumper and putting the punctuation on the 11-5 run with a lead-taking dunk in the final 15 seconds.

Jeremiah Hernandez led the Screaming Eagles with 35 points, followed by 19 from AJ Smith. Southern Indiana and SEMO took a similar amount of three-pointers, but the Redhawks made three more, which made the difference.

After spending much of the first two months of the season with only wins against Central Arkansas and a trio of NAIA opponents, a win against a conference rival changes the fortunes of a team that is still finding its identity.

“It feels good knowing that we can win games,” Martin said. “We know how to play basketball and got a lot of new guys playing their first year and we’re coming together.”

The Redhawks return home to take on Morehead State on Sunday.