Southeast men extend winning streak to five games

~ The redhawks defeated Southeastern Louisiana 74-73 on Saturday

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team came back from a seven-point halftime deficit and gained a one-point lead with less than a minute left in its game against Southeastern Louisisana on Saturday.

The Lions missed two 3-pointers in the last 11 seconds of the game and Southeast was able to hold on for a 74-73 comeback victory in Hammond, La.

The Redhawks took a 74-71 lead on a shot in the lane by Lucas Nutt with 1 minute, 20 seconds left.

Southeastern Louisiana missed a jump shot but came up with the rebound. Antonnio Benton dunked a putback to pull Southeastern Louisiana within one point with 56 seconds left.

Tyler Stone missed a jumpshot with 35 seconds left and the Lions came up with the rebound and called a timeout. They got off their two 3-pointers, but Southeast finished on top.

"We didn't do a good enough job blocking out there late in the game," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "We gave them some opportunities that could've cost us. But at the end of the day we contested, we did a good job of switching, our red flags were up, we had a sense of urgency on that last possession and they did get a couple shots up, but I thought we contested well, we got some good rebounds and we got out of there with a win. We couldn't get out of there fast enough."

The Redhawks shot a season-low 38.7 percent in the first half and trailed 39-32 at halftime.The Lions shot 53.1 percent in the half.

Southeast's largest deficit was 12 points with 3:11 to play in the half.

The Redhawks used a 9-0 run capped by a Darrian Gray layup with 56 seconds left in the half to cut the Lions' lead to 35-32.

Southeastern Louisiana (3-5) answered with a jump shot with 37 seconds left and closed out the half with a layup at the buzzer after a Southeast turnover.

"I thought we regrouped, made some adjustments and played a little bit better in the second half," Nutt said. "But to be honest with you I think we grew up today."

Nutt said that his players faced "some serious adversity" for the first time this season.

"What I mean by that is, we got behind, we had no answer for them, they were scoring at will," Nutt said. "I told them at halftime, 'As bad as we played and as good as they played, we're still only down seven points at halftime, so I think that if we make some adjustments and wake up and start playing with a sense of urgency, then we'll have some success.'"

Senior forward Tyler Stone scored 15 of his 20 points in the first 9 minutes of the second half to give Southeast a 59-57 lead with 11:29 left in the game.

The Redhawks only led by as many as four points the entire game, but after they took the lead in the second half Southeastern Louisiana never tied or led again.

Nutt said that adjustments on the offensive end led to success on defense.

"You can't take quick shots and you've got to make them play defense longer than 15 seconds," Nutt said. "You've got to move that shot clock down into the teens and single digits before you even think about attempting a shot. I think that's the first thing because we couldn't stop anybody."

Southeast's offense improved greatly, with the Redhawks shooting 57.7 percent in the second half.

"Now we were able to start making some stops and I said, 'We're not mixing up defenses anymore. It's man-to-man and you're going to get down and you're going to guard somebody or you're not going to play,'" Nutt said. "I thought we woke up and we played a little bit."

The Redhawks were paced by junior forward Jarekious Bradley, who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Stone finished with 20 points and nine rebounds after scoring just four points in the first half on 1-of-5 shooting. Nino Johnson added 10 points and six rebounds.

Southeast improved to 7-2 with the victory and has a five-game winning streak, the longest in Nutt's career at Southeast.

"For these guys to have a record like they do after nine games and what we've been through, it's certainly a testament to their hard work and doing the right thing and making good choices, good decisions," Nutt said.

The Redhawks return home to the Show Me Center after being on the road for the last four games and have a week before their next game.

Southeast hosts the University of Illinois-Chicago at 7 p.m. Saturday.

"I think it's important right now that we take care of our guys," Nutt said. "Our guys have been all over the world it seems like and now 600 miles away from home. I think it's important we get back and get some rest. I think we're banged up. I think we need to get back in the classroom on Monday and try to get on top of our academics. Then we can get back to study hall, get back to weight room. But I think that we're really going to give them a couple days off, maybe even three days off, and try to see if we can't catch up and get our legs back."