SEMO hoops falter on road at Illinois State in familiar fashion

The story of the 2023-24 Southeast Missouri State men’s basketball squad – so far – has been that it is a good enough group to compete with its like opposition, but not for 40 minutes.

On Thursday, the Redhawks (4-8) watched a strong start slip away in the final portion of the opening half at Illinois State and ultimately fell 85-64.

“The first seven minutes were fantastic,” fourth-year SEMO coach Brad Korn said. “We were ready to go. Everything was clicking and we were playing at a level that we needed to play.

“And then we just had that drop-off.”

The Redhawks led the Redbirds 18-12 following a free throw by redshirt sophomore Adam Larson and still led 18-16 with 9:48 remaining in the opening half. However, the host Redbirds (8-4) closed the opening period on a 30-10 run and never looked back after taking a 42-28 margin into the intermission.

“They opened up and made their run,” Korn continued, “and it was too much to come back from.”

SEMO has not fielded a full complement of players all season due to injuries, and that continued on Thursday.

Junior forward Kobe Clark (knee), sophomore guard Evan Eursher (ankle), and junior wing TJ Biel (concussion protocol) all missed the game and Korn said that impacted his team’s chances of success.

“With this team,” Korn said, “having Evan Eursher helps. TJ Biel helps. Getting (junior guard) Dylan Branson back to full strength, and he’s not full strength yet, and you could tell with some of the plays (Illinois State) made defensively and offensively.

“It helps in that moment, where you can solve it and your level stays up. You can survive a little bit of a run.”

The Redbirds' momentum continued into the second half, as they stretched their lead to as many as 26 points on a few occasions.

“Down some bodies,” Korn said, “we weren’t able to sustain the level that we were at (early).”

Korn did point out that there were controllable aspects of play, such as blockouts, that hurt his team, as well.

“We don’t do ourselves any favors,” Korn said, “and we continue to do the things that beat us. We give them our best (defensive effort) and then we just stand there watching the game while someone else on their team goes and gets (the rebound).”

Illinois State doubled up SEMO on second-chance points (14-7) and dominated the points off of turnovers (19-8).

The hosts outrebounded the Redhawks 29-21 and got to the free-throw line 13 more times (30-17) than the visitors did.

“We had bad turnovers,” Korn said. “We were overthinking a little bit on the offensive end on the turnovers because the plays were there, but we were forcing the pass when we could have beaten them with the bounce (on a drive).”

Larson sank 5 of his 7 3-point shots and led SEMO with 16 points and also grabbed four rebounds.

Sophomore forward Braxton Stacker scored 11 points and pulled down a team-leading five rebounds.

Branson played for the second game this season after returning from a foot injury and scored eight points and dished out four assists while sophomore guard Rob Martin had seven points and four assists.

SEMO will open Ohio Valley Conference play at the Show Me Center on Dec. 29 at 7:30 p.m. against Southern Indiana (ESPN+).