Southeast men's basketball team upsets Murray State

~ Southeast qualified for the OVC tournament with a 64-57 victory

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team clinched its first Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth since the 2006-07 season with a most unlikely victory.

Murray State had beaten Southeast eight straight times, including by 38 points less than a month ago. The Racers had not lost to Southeast in Cape Girardeau since 2002-03.

Both streaks went out the window Wednesday night as the Redhawks stunned MSU 64-57 in front of nearly 1,800 appreciative fans at the Show Me Center.

"It feels real good, finally giving the crowd what they deserved," senior forward Cameron Butler said.

Defending OVC regular-season and tournament champion MSU came to town riding an eight-game winning streak that started with a 96-58 rout of the Redhawks on Jan. 22 in Murray, Ky.

After reversing that result, Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said it was the biggest triumph during his nearly two full seasons trying to rebuild the Redhawks' floundering program.

"We beat a good team. What a good win for us," Nutt said.

The Redhawks (8-19, 6-10) remained seventh in the 10-team OVC with two conference games left while assuring themselves of one of the league's eight tournament berths.

"We hope in the future we're not just trying to make seventh or eighth place. That's not our goal," Nutt said. "But it is a huge step for us."

The Racers (20-7, 12-4) fell out of sole possession of the OVC lead. They are now tied with Morehead State.

"First of all I want to give Southeast Missouri a lot of credit," MSU coach Billy Kennedy said. "They played with greater effort and greater intensity than we did. They were tougher than us.

"We've been ugly for about a month and a half but we've been winning. ... but it caught up with us tonight."

Southeast trailed briefly early, led for the game's final 35-plus minutes and built an 18-point bulge midway through the second half.

MSU pulled within three points in the final 30 seconds but the Redhawks were able to hold on.

"We knew they'd go on their run," junior forward Leon Powell said.

Powell, who leads the nation in field-goal percentage, had another big performance with 19 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.

"I said I thought Leon was one of the best players in the league. I really believe that," Kennedy said.

Senior guard Anthony Allison and sophomore guard Marland Smith both scored 14 points. Redshirt freshman guard Lucas Nutt added 12 points.

"Everybody that played, played well," coach Nutt said.

Southeast scored the final seven points of the first half to lead 30-18, then went on a 7-2 run at the outset of the second half to build a 37-20 bulge.

When Smith drove for a basket, got fouled and hit the free throw with just under 11 minutes left, the Redhawks led 44-26.

It was 50-33 with under six minutes to go when MSU came to life.

"We knew they would strike back," Allison said.

A 10-0 run made it 50-43, and Southeast was in a dogfight the rest of the way.

A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Isaiah Canaan with 26 seconds left cut the deficit to 60-57.

But the Redhawks finished strong. Smith's two free throws with 18 seconds remaining made it 62-57.

Powell's block of a layup attempt by senior guard B.J. Jenkins six seconds later led to Smith's two foul shots that iced the victory.

"We kept our poise," Nutt said.

Southeast, which has struggled with its free-throw shooting, went 8 of 8 in the final 1:16.

Smith went 4 of 4 and so did Butler, who had missed his first two attempts of the night and is not among Southeast's better foul shooters.

"I told Cameron that's the biggest four free throws of his career at Southeast Missouri," Nutt said.

Southeast allowed its lowest point total of the season against an OVC opponent and held the league's best 3-point shooting team to just 4 of 18 (22.2 percent) from beyond the arc.

"I thought our defense gave them fits," Nutt said.

Southeast shot 46.5 percent and had only eight turnovers to match its second-lowest total of the season.

The Redhawks have improved offensively and defensively while limiting their turnovers since emphasizing running the shot clock in recent weeks.

"We changed up our philosophy and bought into it," Allison said. "It's a good feeling [knocking off the Racers]. They've been beating us up for a long time."

Southeast closes out its home schedule Saturday against Sacramento State in the BracketBusters game.