Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team evens OVC record with 98-76 win

Southeast Missouri State sophomore guard Antonius Cleveland's answer to whether he and his teammates had finally played their best game of the season Thursday night was succinct.

"Of course," Cleveland said as broad grins stretched across his and his teammates' faces.

The Redhawks put together a performance that they'd been waiting on all season with a 98-76 defeat of UT-Martin at the Show Me Center.

Everything looked easy for Southeast as they improved to 12-13 and 6-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"I think everyone's just bought in, really," freshman guard Marcus Wallace said. "We realized our record isn't as good as it should be, that we're a better team than that, so we decided we needed to fix something and everybody was focused this week. We needed to change something and get us going, and once we did that everybody started playing together, diving for loose balls. When we play together it's fun and we win."

Southeast trailed by as many as six points early in the game, but after the Redhawks took a 29-28 lead with 9 minutes, 13 seconds remaining in the first half on a 3-pointer by freshman guard JT Jones they never trailed again.

Jones, the Sikeston native who played in just his second conference game, finished with seven points, three rebounds and three assists in 14 minutes off the bench.

"The crowd gets into it a little bit more when JT gets in," Cleveland said. "With an atmosphere like that I feel like we can beat any team."

Southeast Missouri State's Antonius Cleveland sails in for a dunk against UT Martin in the first half Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (GLENN LANDBERG)

The Redhawks, who were diving after loose balls and encouraging each other nearly every chance they got, capitalized on six Skyhawk turnovers over the final eight minutes of the half and held a 53-40 advantage at the break. They scored 23 points off 15 UTM turnovers in the half.

"We might come out Saturday and not be able to make shots like this tonight, but we've just got to pick it up on the defensive end," said Cleveland, who had 19 points and five rebounds. "We can't hit every shot, but we can play defense. That's something we can control every night. If we play defense like we did tonight, forcing 15 turnovers in the first half, then I think we'll be in pretty good shape on Saturday."

Junior guard Isiah Jones opened up the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers to quickly push the lead to 19. He finished 4 of 8 from behind the arc and had 16 points.

UTM got as close as 14 points, but never any closer. Southeast pushed its lead to as many as 27 with a Jarekious Bradley jumper with 9:13 remaining.

Bradley finished with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting and six rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench.

"I thought he was outstanding tonight," Nutt said. "Sometimes a guy that thinks he's good, and he is, but he gets frustrated with himself and next thing you know he's caught up in his own game, and that's not winning basketball. Tonight was winning basketball."

The Redhawks' 98 points was their most this season.

They shot 58.5 percent in the game, attempting nearly 20 more shots than the Skyhawks, who shot 51.1 percent and made 13 of 24 3s.

Southeast made a season-high 12 triples and were 48 percent from behind the arc, and also was 10 of 13 from the free-throw line.

"Coach told us before the game that we were kind of being hesitant in the other games with letting shots go," Wallace said. "He told us just to play our game and everybody just played together.

"When we're just moving the ball and playing together we get wide open shots, and we all can knock down wide open shots. The rotations and the feel of the game, we just got a rhythm and didn't look back."

The freshman who had played sparingly throughout the season followed up an 18-point and 31-minute game Saturday with a 14-point game in 29 minutes off the bench against the Skyhawks. He was 4 of 4 from the field, making three 3-pointers. He also had three steals, a block and an assist.

Senior forward Nino Johnson was a force inside, scoring 13 points and snagging 10 rebounds along with three blocks, three assists and one steal.

"I thought Nino Johnson had a big-man game," Nutt said. "I thought he was outstanding. I thought he was all over the place. When he got his hands on that ball it was like a vice grip. I was very proud of him because he was scoring at will and he handled his team. He was the captain of this team tonight and that was a thing of beauty."

Southeast hosts OVC leader Murray State (22-4, 12-0 OVC) on Saturday night. The men's game is slated for 6 p.m. following the women's game at 3:30 p.m.

"It was a good win for us, and I'm quick to say and I told our team afterwards that, 'No. 1 we have a lot of catching up to do. No. 2: don't get too overly giddy about our performance. Try to stay as even keel as you can because this is a business week. Here comes Murray State -- the monster of the league, so to speak,'" Nutt said.