SEMO women look to get back on track Thursday at Western Illinois

While Ohio Valley Conference play didn’t get off on the right foot for the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks this past weekend, they have now set their sights on Thursday’s contest with Western Illinois.

The Redhawks fell 75-37 at the hands of Southern Indiana and 64-61 at the hands of Morehead State.

Following the blowout loss to Southern Indiana, Redhawks coach Rekha Patterson said she felt like it was an opportunity for growth.

“Well, we learned who we want to be, we got punched in the face tonight and anytime you suffer defeat like this it's gonna stagger you and it may stagger your confidence,” Patterson said. “But you got to look yourself in the mirror and be like, we're better, I’m better and I'm gonna be better during my next opportunity.”

Thursday’s road test won’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination however as the Leathernecks are 10-2 overall and a perfect 8-0 when playing at home.

Perhaps the most impressive win of the season for Western Illinois came on Nov. 12 when the Leathernecks defeated Northern Illinois 95-62.

Leading the charge to the 10-2 start in their first season in the OVC is Raegan McCowan, averaging 18.1 points per game.

McCowan isn’t the only scoring threat for Western Illinois as the Leathernecks feature three other double-digit scorers in Anna Deets (14.1 ppg), Mallory McDermott (12.1 ppg) and Addi Brownfield (10.6 ppg).

The Leathernecks also won their OVC opener with an 81-75 win over SIUE on Sunday.

While numbers don’t always tell the full story, they tell a lot of it with how the season has gone so far for Southeast.

The Redhawks are currently 3-10 overall and 0-7 when hitting the road.

Despite losing to Morehead State last Sunday, Patterson was pleased with what she saw from sophomore Alecia Doyle.

“I thought we had a push, they looked up and I think Alecia said in the timeout ‘Wait, what are we down? It's six, that's nothing, we can do this’ and we had to play her at the point. We felt like that was the best way for us to get looks on offense and get what we wanted,” Patterson said. “I think Alicia’s composure and her grit is what helped the team kind of fall in line with what she was doing.”

The grit and composure of a player like Doyle is what the Redhawks will need to knock off Western Illinois.

A season ago, SEMO hosted Western Illinois at the Show Me Center where the Redhawks came away victorious with a 63-55 win behind 17 points from Doyle and 11 points from Jaliyah Green.

Tipoff between the Redhawks and Leathernecks is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4, in Macomb, Illinois.