SEMO WBB finally wins on the road thanks to Henderson and the 3-ball

Six games into the Ohio Valley Conference portion of the season, the Southeast Missouri State women’s basketball team needs two things going for them: improve on their three-point shooting and find a go-to scorer.

The Redhawks finally won a game away from the friendly confines of the Show Me Center. They defeated Morehead State on Saturday 87-77 by making more three-pointers than in any other road game and were led by Rahmena Henderson, who scored a career-high 25 points and made three 3’s for the second consecutive game.

It almost didn’t happen. SMEO entered the fourth quarter trailing 60-56. Behind Henderson’s 14 points, the Redhawks scored 31 points in a fourth-quarter rally to secure that much elusive first road win.

Before last week, the Redhawks were in the midst of a four-game losing streak to open the OVC slate and the only time Henderson made three 3-pointers this season was in a road loss at Ole Miss.

The Redhawks enter this week with back-to-back wins and Henderson has emerged as their top outside shooter.

“Rahmena can score,” SEMO head coach Rekha Patterson said last week after the Redhawks’ home win over Lindenwood. “We know that she can shoot it. Obviously, none of us have really been shooting it well, but here shooting and hitting those threes gives her a lot of confidence and keeps the team energized.”

In a sport where one shot is worth 50 percent more than the other, making and defending that shot becomes the name of the game. SEMO has shot 30 percent (80-of-266) from the three-point line, whereas opponents have shot 95-of-292 (.325).

When on the road, the Redhawks made only 33-of-139 (.237), meaning they are trying, but missing and losing. Whatever difference is being made between home and road is what’s pushing SEMO over to the win column.

It seems that the Redhawks are trying to improve their three-point shooting and are finding a string of small successes.

The next step is to be less surprised when they do shoot well from the key.

I don’t want to sit around thinking we’re a three-point shooting team now,” Patterson said on Dec. 20 after SEMO had its best shooting night against UIC. “10-of-16 was great. I’ll take that any day of the week, but it just so happened to happen that way.”

The Redhawks are now in the game with two wins. The top three teams are Eastern Illinois (6-0), Little Rock (5-1), and Tennessee Tech (5-1). After that UT Martin and SIU Edwardsville are tied at 3-3 and then a four-way deadlock, including SEMO, at 2-4.

With a three-game homestand coming up, starting on Thursday against former Notre Dame star Lexi Rubel and the UT Martin Skyhawks, the Redhawks have the opportunity to continue their winning streak and get in position to get into the OVC tournament.