Southeast men upset Murray State in double overtime to close regular season

~ Southeast men defeat Murray State 118-115 in double overtime

The Southeast Missouri State and Murray State men's basketball teams decided that 40 minutes of basketball wasn't enough in both team's regular-season finale Saturday night.

Even one overtime wasn't enough as the Redhawks and Racers battled through two overtimes before Southeast came away with a 118-115 win at the Show Me Center.

"I thought we were very resilient tonight," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "I thought it was a heavyweight fight in our conference. I thought both teams took punches and it was going to be the team, I think, that was going to make the most plays and get the best stops. In overtime we finally held them to 40 percent and I thought that was the difference."

The Redhawks held three-point leads late in both regulation and the first overtime, and it took two missed free throws by Murray State freshman Cameron Payne with 4.4 seconds left in the first overtime to leave it tied at 105 and send it to what would be the final five minutes that Southeast needed.

In the second overtime, the game really came down to clutch plays by a pair of Southeast freshmen.

Southeast guard Jamaal Calvin hit four free throws in the second overtime, including two with 11.9 seconds left that put Southeast up 116-113, and the Redhawks never trailed again.

But it was guard Antonius Cleveland, who scored seven points in the second overtime alone, that broke a 111-tie with a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 6 seconds remaining.

"I thought Jamaal Calvin hit two pressure, pressure free throws," Nutt said. "But what about the play of Antonius Cleveland in overtime? He absolutely put us on his shoulders offensively."

After Calvin's free throws to put Southeast up three, Darrian Gray came up with a block on the defensive end and Nino Johnson took a long outlet pass from senior Tyler Stone to throw down a dunk.

Southeast fans rushed the floor, but time still remained on the clock. There was a discussion between the referees and both coaches, and while there was no penalty placed on Southeast because of the fans, Johnson was issued a Class B technical foul for hanging on the rim.

Murray State's Jeffery Moss knocked down both technical free throws and the Racers took the ball out of bounds and had to go the length of the floor in .4 seconds.

"We didn't play that out just right, and I told Nino," Nutt said. "He knew that we made a mistake. Any time you're on that floor you've got to play it like the game is in play. He thought the clock was going to run out, and so he swung on the rim. So naturally two-shot foul when all he had to do is dribble that ball out or lay it in and finish the game. And like I told him, 'Just win the game. Just win the game. We're not that kind of show-type team, we're not a show-off type team.' I'm not saying he was, and I'm not disappointed in him at all. I promise you. I love the way he's playing. He didn't have a great first half, but in the second half he was a difference-maker."

Johnson deflected the inbound pass on Murray's State's final possession to give Southeast the long-fought victory. He'd also come up with an offensive rebound off his own missed shot that led to Calvin's free throws that put Southeast ahead for good.

"We just felt they tried to take it away from us, which made us want it more," Johnson said of the technical foul. 'We could've went another overtime, whatever they wanted to do we were prepared."

The win was a long-awaited signature moment in a Redhawks' season that has often fallen short of expectations.

"They deserve so much credit because I thought we absolutely left our hearts and our guts out there," Nutt said. "I thought we left every ounce of effort on that floor. There was no lazy plays, maybe a couple winded plays, but they were too. That overtime game was special because we did it without one of our best players."

Southeast's leading scorer Jarekious Bradley, who finished with 24 points, only played four minutes during the two five-minute overtimes because of leg cramps and only scored two points after regulation.

The Redhawks had several players that contributed in the game, and every player that scored for Southeast finished in double-figures.

Cleveland finished with a career-high 21 points. Calvin had 17 points, Stone had 17 points and 14 rebounds and Josh Langford added 17. Johnson finished with 12 points and seven rebounds and senior Lucas Nutt had 10 points and eight assists. Nutt and Langford fouled out in the final two minutes of the first overtime.

"I thought tonight was critical for our staff, for me, and for our team, because our team realized that we have depth, and you've got to have depth if you're going to win four games in a row," Nutt said about the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. "But let's just stick with the same philosophy, the same theme we had two weeks ago, four games ago. It was one possession, one half, one game, don't worry about anything else. There's no tomorrow, there's no yesterday, forget that. Everything's in front of you and one at a time."

Southeast took a 52-46 lead into halftime after a first half that featured both teams shooting nearly lights out. The Redhawks were 20 of 32 (62.5 percent) from the field and were 6 of 11 behind the arc while the Racers shot 15 of 28 from the floor and 8 of 15 from 3-point range.

With the win Southeast kept Murray State (18-10, 13-3 OVC) from sharing the OVC regular-season championship with Belmont.

"We weren't trying to prove anything," Stone said. "We just came out trying to get these last couple wins. It's always a big game when we play Murray and stuff like that and so it was a lot of energy. We just wanted to play hard and execute our stuff."

The Redhawks will take a four-game winning streak into the OVC tournament. Southeast (17-13, 8-8 OVC) is the sixth seed and will face No. 7 Eastern Illinois in a first-round game at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

"Just like they're preparing for us, we're preparing for them also," Johnson said. "We're ready for whatever anybody hit us with. We know that they know our system and they're going to try to out-coach us and out-smart us, but with that being said, everybody's got to play. We're coming in defensive-minded, you know, ready to go to war."