Southeast men's basketball team records first win

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball was never in any significant danger of losing against Hannibal-LaGrange on Tuesday night at the Show Me Center.

That didn't make the halftime message any softer for the Redhawks players though when they led their NAIA opponent by just 13 points.

"I let them have it at halftime," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "The biggest thing was that I thought we played selfish in the first half. I didn't think we made the extra pass. I didn't think we were executing offensively. I didn't think on defense we were talking to each other. We had a charge taken down there and nobody complimenting one another. And again, that's a selfish brand of basketball, and that will not be tolerated."

Nutt's squad heeded the coach's message and secured its first win of the season in dominating fashion over the NAIA Trojans, 86-49.

"I thought we adjusted," Nutt said. "I thought at halftime we had our discussion and I really thought in the second half we were a much better basketball team. We were certainly good in all areas."

Seniors Jarekious Bradley and Nino Johnson said their coach stressed to get a stop on each of the Trojans' first five offensive possessions, and the Redhawks did that.

Bradley, who played for the first time this season after dealing with a severe thigh bruise, knocked down consecutive 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the half as part of an 8-0 run to put Southeast up 50-29 with 17 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the game.

"A guy like Jarekious Bradley hadn't played in 8 1/2 months, and for him to walk out on that floor and do just as good as anybody -- if not be the best out there," Nutt said. "The way he shoots the ball, he just has a knack for getting that ball to go in and get that ball in the hole."

Hannibal answered with a jump shot to cut its deficit to 19 seconds later, but that was as close as the Trojans (0-5) would get.

Southeast shot 56.6 percent from the field in the game and were 18 of 23 from the charity stripe. The Redhawks, which had shot 7.1 percent from 3-point range in a loss Saturday, was 8 of 14 (44.4 percent) from behind the arc against the Trojans.

The Redhawks led by as many as 40 points in the closing minutes of the game.

Thirteen players got in the game for Southeast with 12 scoring.

Bradley led the Redhawks with 15 points. He shot 5 of 10 in his return and was 4 of 8 from behind the arc.

"I felt good tonight," Bradley said with a smile. "I felt like I was a little rusty, though, on some things."

Josh Langford, who was suspended the first two games of the season for a violation of team rules last semester, finished with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Johnson scored 10 points, all in the second half, and had five steals and two blocks. He also had four of Southeast's 23 turnovers.

"I feel like we might've taken it for granted in the first half, you know, making too many mistakes and turnovers," Johnson said. "Eventually we got it together after coach got on our butts -- me for sure because I was being a little bit too passive. We were playing great defense, but as far as on offense I was trying to make home-run plays instead of just making the right plays, so coach kind of got on my tail about that."

Junior guard Isiah Jones added 10 points and five assists.

Freshman forward TJ Thomas finished with nine points and four rebounds in 12 minutes of action, and was 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.

"TJ Thomas was good tonight," Nutt said. "If you look at his free-throw shooting, that's encouraging because that's one of the sore spots with our team right now. But shooting nearly 80 percent tonight [as a team], that was big."

Southeast, which improved to 1-2 with the win, faces Central Arkansas on Saturday.

"That was important that *... we had some success," Nutt said. "It's going to be much different. I certainly give Hannibal-LaGrange a lot of credit because I thought they were very pesky. I thought they were a good basketball team, but it's not going to be what we're facing. I do think that we're just gradually getting better."