Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team falls at home to Morehead State

Any step forward that the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team took in its conference road games last weekend was erased in Thursday night's Ohio Valley Conference matchup with Morehead State.

The Redhawks fell 70-57 to a shorthanded Morehead team at the Show Me Center.

"We are most disappointed. Talk about taking a step back, that's exactly what we did tonight," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "I was disappointed for that. As good as we played on the road, and to come home and play like that. *... I thought a bad night turned worse as every minute went through."

Southeast (7-9, 1-2 OVC) trailed by as many as 11 points midway through the second half, but a 14-6 run cut the Eagles (5-11, 1-1 OVC) lead to three with 3 minutes, 29 seconds to go.

After senior forward Aaron Adeoye split a pair of free throws, sophomore guard Antonius Cleveland stole a Morehead inbound pass and scored to make it 56-53.

Morehead's Corban Collins knocked down a 3-pointer 25 seconds later and the Redhawks never came any closer.

"That was a big 3 they hit," Cleveland said. "Any time the momentum shifted our way for about 10 seconds, they'd knock down a shot and kind of steal the momentum back. We needed to get stops, but that's the kind of night we had."

That 3 sparked a 13-0 run for the Eagles, which led to their largest lead of the night at 69-53 with a little more than a minute remaining. Morehead improved to 4-7 on the road or at a neutral site with the win.

"It started with free-throw shooting, with poor free-throw shooting, and then next thing you know we're in a dogfight and *... everything just gets tighter and tighter," Nutt said. "The leadership tonight was non-existent, and I put the blame solely on me. I certainly take full responsibility. We will regroup tonight with the staff, and then we'll be back in practice tomorrow. It's just disappointing because we felt like we had so many good practices leading up to today that we felt like that we had taken a good step in being a team to reckon with."

Morehead was without its leading scorer, senior guard Angelo Warner, as well as probable starting forward Lyonell Gaines, who were out with injury along with Marquel Willis.

"Guys had to step up -- guys who hadn't stepped up -- and they did," Morehead State coach Sean Woods said. "They responded through some harsh adversity."

The Redhawks faced an early eight-point deficit in the first 3:15 of the game but used an 17-9 run that was capped with a 3-pointer by junior guard Isiah Jones, who led Southeast with 20 points, with 6:11 left in the opening half to take a 19-17 lead.

It was tied three more times in the half before a basket by Morehead guard Brent Arrington gave the Eagles a 30-28 halftime advantage.

Southeast Missouri State's Antonius Cleveland pushes past a Morehead State defender in the second half Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Glenn Landberg)

Southeast trailed the remainder of the game. They finished with 21 turnovers and were outrebounded 44-35, giving up 20 offensive rebounds and 20 second-chance points.

"Rebounding was a sore spot for us because we're bigger, stronger, more athletic. It goes back to [playing] just as hard as you possibly can with the effort," Nutt said. "That was part of it, but 21 turnovers against a team that does not press? We played against Arkansas. They pressed every [possession] and only had 10 turnovers. Now we play a team that didn't, and it's just a lack of intensity, lack of urgency, lack of concentration, just being at the highest level, too cool for school, whatever you want to call it, but it starts with me. Evidently I didn't get our guys ready to play tonight. I certainly thought we were ready because our practices have been very, very good and just a very disappointing night."

A pair of technical fouls issued to his leading scorer, senior guard Jarekious Bradley, added to Nutt's frustrations. Bradley, who was held to nine points, was ejected from the game following his second technical with 1:27 remaining. Southeast officials were unsure following the game if he will face further suspension or punishment.

"I don't know the rule on that," Nutt said. "I'm hoping not. He's really remorseful. The first one they kind of got into a scuffle and they had to be separated, and I think that was just a normal technical foul that they were just trying to tone things down a little bit. I think the second one came in frustration in how he reacted to a foul. And he basically said, 'He held me,' but when you have that kind of response to a referee *... it's in their hands, and they can do anything they want [to do]. The bottom line is keep your mouth closed. Keep your mouth closed and just play. Just because you're having a bad night and a frustrating night -- all of us are -- there's no room in this game for technical fouls. I'm the only one who needs to get a technical foul, and I tried to get one just to see if we couldn't stir something up, but they just elected not to give me one."

The Redhawks host defending OVC tournament champion Eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"Anything can happen in the game of basketball, but this one stings because we didn't have enough energy," Nutt said. "We didn't have enough, you know, whatever, whatever it was. I have to take responsibility for it. But when you look at our roster, and they have a guy out. Next thing you know maybe something's going through our minds that it's just going to be an easy night, and you know in conference basketball everything counts. And now here we go, Eastern Kentucky on Saturday afternoon. It's not going to get any easier. We're going to bounce back and practice tomorrow and get with it and play the guys that want to give me all they have every night, every time out."