SEMO hoop struggles reach zenith in blowout loss to Kansas City

Following a recent 16-point loss at Chattanooga, which lowered his team’s record to 1-5 this season, fourth-year Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball coach Brad Korn was relatively positive in his assessment of his squad, despite the contrarian statistical measures.

“There are growing pains to go through, unfortunately, right now, unfortunately for us,” Korn said following that loss. “But we will keep giving ourselves a chance to win basketball games if we play the way that we did (against Chattanooga).

“I’m encouraged by that.”

Korn couldn’t have been “encouraged” following the Redhawk's latest outing, a 74-44 loss at Kansas City on Thursday.

It was the least productive offensive output for a SEMO team since losing 80-40 to Morehead State on Jan. 14, 2010.

“We had great (offensive) looks to start the game,” Korn said following the loss to the ‘Roos. “I thought that we were ready to go. We missed four lay-ups in that first segment.”

SEMO (1-6) led 8-6 three minutes into the game before Kansas City (3-5) took off on a 14-2 run over the next five minutes and never trailed again.

The Redhawks have trailed by double digits in every game this season, with each of those deficits, except a win over Central Arkansas, seeing those opposing leads in the first half, and Thursday was no exception.

The ‘Roos, which had lost five consecutive games before Thursday, led 38-17 at halftime.

“We have these long (offensive) droughts of not being able to score,” Korn said. “Then we start to force things and we start to press.”

Of the 361 NCAA Division I programs in the country, the Redhawks rank 351st offensively (60.6 points per game).

SEMO missed 18 of its 19 3-point attempts on Thursday (it ranks 313th in the country in that category) and continued to struggle at the free throw line (making just 9 of 16 attempts).

The Redhawks rank 357th nationally in free throw percentage.

“It is a really, really hard game if you can’t score the ball,” Korn said. “We’re getting free throw attempts. We’re coming really close on free throws. We’re missing lay-ups and we can’t make more than one (3-pointer).”

The Redhawks weren’t any better defensively.

Coming into the game, Korn had made rebounding the basketball the number one area of concern with his team. Despite that emphasis, SEMO “got kicked on the glass,” according to Korn.

The ‘Roos outrebounded the Redhawks 52-31, including 15-8 on Kansas City misses, including four times on missed free throws.

“We didn’t really execute anything from a physical standpoint in this game,” Korn said.

One SEMO highlight was the fact that junior guard Aquan Smart had his best game of this season, as he hit 4 of 9 shots en route to a team-best 13 points. He also had five rebounds and only one turnover in 26 minutes of playing time.

Sophomore guard Rob Martin had just eight points and a pair of assists.

As a team, the Redhawks had just four assists on their 17 made shots.

“We look too much like silos out there,” Korn said. “Just too much of one guy doing one thing and another guy doing one thing, offensively and defensively.”

Sophomore forward Braxton Stacker had seven rebounds to lead his team in that area of play.

SEMO will return to the Show Me Center on Sunday at 3 p.m. against NAIA program Missouri Baptist (6-2).

Coming home

Former Jackson High School standout Nick Wasilewski is a sophomore forward for Missouri Baptist and has contributed to his team’s strong start.

The 6-foot-6 athlete is averaging nearly 12 minutes off the bench and has played in all eight games while pulling down 12 rebounds.