Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team falls from OVC unbeaten ranks at Eastern Kentucky

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team came ever so close to picking up its fourth straight Ohio Valley Conference win Saturday night.

But host Eastern Kentucky scored the game's final six points in the last 34 seconds to squeeze out a 63-59 victory.

Southeast saw its overall four-game winning streak end. The Redhawks fell to 8-8 and 3-1 in OVC play. They are tied for third in the 11-team league.

EKU (10-7, 4-1) is in second place after notching its fifth consecutive win over Southeast in Richmond, Ky. The Colonels have won eight of the last nine in the series overall.

"It's very, very disappointing," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "It's hard when you drop those games where you're so close. We had our chances."

Southeast entered play 3-1 in games decided by two points or fewer. The Redhawks had won three straight such contests, including Thursday's 73-71 victory at Tennessee-Martin in their first OVC road test.

"We've had our share of luck," Nutt said.

It looked like the Redhawks might make it four straight in crunchtime situations when they led 59-57 after a basket by senior forward Leon Powell with 2 minutes, 6 seconds left.

The Redhawks had a chance to expand their lead after a defensive stop but failed to convert a shot with a little more than one minute remaining.

EKU senior guard Jaron Jones hit two free throws with 34 seconds left for a 59-59 tie, and Southeast planned to run down the clock, either winning at the end or going to overtime.

But the Redhawks turned over the ball against a trap and then immediately fouled Jones with 23 seconds left. Jones hit both free throws to put EKU up 61-59.

"We beat their press the entire night, but they had the biggest steal of the night," Nutt said.

Nutt said Southeast got exactly the play it sought after a Southeast timeout. Sharpshooting junior guard Nick Niemczyk took an open 3-pointer, but the attempt rimmed out with 8 seconds left.

"We executed perfectly, to get Nick a wide-open shot," Nutt said. "It went in and out. If it goes in, we win."

Powell grabbed the offensive rebound of the Niemczyk miss and was fouled with 4 seconds left.

Powell missed the first free throw then intentionally missed the second. Southeast nearly got the rebound, but it went out of bounds off the Redhawks.

Jones, who scored EKU's final eight points, iced the victory by making two free throws with 1 second left.

"I'm proud of the guys," Nutt said. "We came into a very tough place to play and had the lead all night it seemed like. We played well."

One thing the Redhawks didn't do well was shoot free throws, which has been a recurring theme during the past few years.

Southeast made just 4 of 13 from the foul line for a woeful 30.8 percent. The Redhawks are shooting just 62.8 percent from the charity stripe this season.

Powell went 2 of 6 from the line, and sophomore forward Tyler Stone was 1 of 4.

"We haven't been an exceptional free-throw shooting team anyway, but when you shoot like we did tonight, it's tough," Nutt said. "If we hit half our free throws, we win. It all went down to free-throw shooting."

Stone scored 17 points in the first half. He hit all eight of his field goals. Senior guard Marcus Brister added 12 points before halftime.

The Redhawks led most of the first half, including by seven points, and was up 36-30 at the break.

Southeast also was ahead for a good part of the second half, but things went back and forth. EKU took its biggest advantage at 53-48 with less than 10 minutes left, but Southeast battled back to go ahead 59-57 before the Colonels' closing flurry.

"It felt like we won the entire night," Nutt said. "It felt like we had the game under control for all but about three minutes."

Stone scored just one point in the second half and finished with 18. Brister wound up with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Junior guard Marland Smith scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half.

Jones and senior guard Joshua Jones both scored 20 points to lead EKU.

Southeast shot 56.8 percent from the field, while holding EKU to 36.7 percent. But the Colonels made 20 of 24 free throws while the Redhawks struggled from the line.

The Redhawks now return home for two straight beginning Thursday against SIU-Edwardsville.

"We just have to bounce back," Nutt said.