SEMO gets Korn 50th win, beats Bethel 71-61

Brad Korn earned his 50th win as Southeast Missouri State head coach as the Redhawks defeated the Bethel Wildcats 71-61 on Jan. 6, at the Show Me Center.

Josh Early led the Redhawks with 14 points, followed by 13 from Evan Eursher and 12 from Rob Martin.

SEMO has won 37 straight games against non-Division 1 teams, but the Redhawks were in danger of breaking that streak in the first half.

Southeast Missouri State guard Evan Eursher tries to get past a Bethel defender on Saturday, Jan. 6, at the Show Me Center.Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

“We came out slow today,” Eursher said. “We had to pick it up in the second half and we came up with a win so that’s all that matters.”

The Redhawks went from being down 13-11 six minutes into the game to being 25-16 with 9:24 to go in the half. SEMO got its act together and responded with an 8-3 run to narrow the gap and later closed the first half on a 13-6 run to lead 37-36 at halftime after a last second layup by Martin.

“We didn’t come out with the energy like we did in conference play,” Martin said. “We held them at a lower standard.”

SEMO trailed Bethel 41-39 early in the second half. Earley tied the game at 41-41 on a jumper with 16:46 remaining, sparking a 20-7 run to go up 61-48 before the media timeout with 7:25 to go in the game. SEMO cruised the rest of the way to maintain its double-digit lead through the final buzzer.

The reason why the Redhawks won is because they’re a D1 team against an NAIA team. The reason why they were in such a hole to begin with was also because they knew they were a D1 team against an NAIA team.

Southeast Missouri State guard Aquan Smart handles the ball against Bethel on Saturday, Jan. 6, at the Show Me Center.Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

“We came out sluggish. We thought things were supposed to go our way,” Eursher said. “ Next time we got to respect our opponent and come back harder.”

SEMO shot 50.9 percent (29-of-57) for the game and scored 22 points off 15 turnovers from the Wildcats. The Redhawks improve to 6-10 with every win taking place at home (6-2).

“We’re worried about stacking games,” Early said. “This is just a small step to more wins.”

Riding the confidence of returning to the win column, the Redhawks will host in-state rival Lindenwood on Thursday, Jan. 11, following the women’s game at 5:15 p.m.

“If we come out and play hard we can beat many teams by 15+,” Martin said.