Southeast men's basketball team scorched by Missouri State's outside shooting

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team could've used some help from the fire department to cool off the scorching outside shooting of Missouri State on Saturday at the Show Me Center.

The visiting Bears (5-3) handed the Redhawks their first home loss of the season with a 73-61 come-from-behind defeat after shooting 87.5 percent from behind the arc in the second half.

"The thing I was disappointed with is I felt like we ducked our heads when things didn't go right for us," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "They created about a four or five-point spread there, and we ducked our heads. I told our team after the game that in the game of basketball, on the floor a quiet guy is a scared guy. I mean that in the day before practice you can't even get a word in because of all the verbal cues, whether it be 'close out, close out,' 'deny, deny,' 'help side,' 'great play', whatever -- you're just so enthusiastic, into it. You can't be up and down. We had every break on Wednesday night [against Southern Illinois], and tonight we had to make our own breaks and we just didn't get that done. That's the thing that was disappointing to me. I felt like for the first time this year we ducked our head."

The Redhawks (5-5) led the entire first half and held a 32-28 advantage at the break.

They shot 47.8 percent (11 of 23) from the floor and knocked down 5 of 11 3-point attempts.

Southeast Missouri State's J.J. Thompson takes a shot over Missouri State's Marcus Marshall during the first half Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

The Bears shot just 29.6 percent (8 of 27 from the floor) but also were 5 of 11 on 3s.

That all changed in the final 20 minutes.

The Redhawks made 1 of 13 3s -- a mere 7.7 percent -- while the Bears only missed 1 of 8 attempts to shoot 87.5 percent.

"We've had a hard time shooting the ball as good as we want to. We're very inconsistent with that," Nutt said. "I thought the first few possessions, again, too many 3s, bailing them out -- we're settling for something less. We've got to penetrate and get to the line, and although we're not as good free-throw shooters, still it doesn't matter. You've got to get to the line and put some pressure on them defensively."

The Bears' pulled within a point 2 minutes, 48 seconds into the second half on a four-point play by guard Austin Ruder.

Southeast Missouri State's Jarekious Bradley drives away from Missouri State's Chris Kendrix during the second half Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

He was fouled while shooting a 3 by Southeast senior forward Nino Johnson and made both the 3 and the free throw.

A layup by MSU guard Dorrian Williams off a missed 3 by the Redhawks gave the Bears their first lead of the game at 35-34.

They'd never relinquish it.

"I thought the first half we were OK," Nutt said. "It's the second half, there for about 10 minutes they absolutely controlled the game and we had no answer. Everything we did defensively we were a step behind, a half a step behind, and, man, Ruder can shoot the basketball."

MSU knocked down four 3s over a three-minute stretch that pushed its lead to six points with 14:31 remaining and forced Nutt to take a timeout.

Ruder had knocked down 3s on consecutive possessions prior to the timeout, which put him at 5 of 5 on the night from behind the arc, a stretch that Southeast sophomore guard Antonius Cleveland believed to be a definite momentum shift.

Ruder finally missed an attempt with about five minutes remaining and finished with 16 points.

Southeast scored a couple of layups after the timeout to pull within 48-46 but never got any closer.

The Redhawks struggled when the Bears switched between man and zone defenses.

They missed seven attempts from beyond the arc before junior guard Isiah Jones made one with 2:35 remaining to cut the deficit to 63-59.

MSU's 6-foot-7 forward Gavin Thurman answered with a 3 that deadened on the back of the rim and rolled in to push the game nearly out of reach with 1:47 left.

MSU guard Marcus Marshall then made six free throws over the final minute to seal the win.

Marshall finished with 21 points while Thurman added 19.

"Another thing that bothered me a little bit, and it goes back to the point guard responsibilities: you've got to be able to recognize exactly what you're in," Nutt said of his team's confusion on offense. "If they're in a 2-3 zone, you're prepared for that. If they're in a 1-3-1, you're ready for that. If they're in a man-to-man, you're ready for that. They mixed their defenses up, and my point guard and our team, we didn't recognize that, and so now you're hollering instructions and before you can even get the instructions to the necessary person, we throw it away. But I think above everything else, with all that being said, we'll get better. That's going to be experience for us. We'll get better at that. I think the biggest difference other than the shooting was the 15 turnovers. Out of those 15 turnovers, 10 of those were probably unforced."

The Redhawks threw multiple errant passes and had a player step on the end or sideline with the ball without pressure from the defense on at least two occasions.

"Their coach did a pretty good job of keeping us guessing," Johnson said. "I guess they did a lot of work watching film on us. If they went man we played great offensively, but when they switched it up 1-3-1, 2-3 [zone] they had us confused, so it was kind of hard to execute."

Southeast was able to get it inside with ease against the Bears' man-to-man defense, scoring 30 points in the paint. Johnson finished with a team-high 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

The loss snapped a seven-game home winning streak for Southeast dating back to last season.

The Redhawks will hit the road to face Arkansas next Saturday and Ole Miss on Dec. 22.

"Yeah, it don't feel too good," Cleveland said of the winning streak being snapped. "I wanted to keep the streak going. Anytime you get a nice amount of fans here you definitely want to send them home with a win. This loss is a tough one, but there's a lot of games left to be played, so we've just got to rebuild and learn something from this loss and carry it over to Arkansas."