Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team falls to 0-3 with loss to Alabama A&M

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team is still searching for its first win of the Rick Ray era.

The Redhawks dropped to 0-3 on the season with a 74-56 loss to Alabama A&M in Hunstville, Alabama, Thursday night. The Bulldogs improved to 2-0.

A&M jumped out to a 16-8 lead midway through the first half before the Redhawks scored 10 unanswered with 3s by Ladarius Coleman and Eric McGill, and a Coleman layup and dunk that put the Redhawks up 18-16 with 5 minutes, 38 seconds left in the first half.

Southeast held a 26-23 lead with 54 seconds left in the half before A&M's Ladarius Tabb scored on a layup and hit a free throw to tie it up.

Nick West sank a pair of free throws for the Bulldogs with 1 second left to give A&M a 28-26 halftime lead.

The Redhawks trailed the remainder of the way.

The Bulldogs went up 55-41 on a 3-pointer by Christopher Thomas 9:25 into the second half before Southeast answered with an 8-0 run to pull within six with 8:39 to go, which was as close as it'd get.

The Redhawks scored just seven points after that.

Southeast, which finished with a season-high 20 turnovers, had 11 in the second half. A&M scored 18 points off turnovers.

Southeast was 12 of 25 (48 percent) from the field in the second half after shooting 32 percent in the opening 20 minutes.

The Redhawks were 2 of 18 from 3-point range with both makes coming in the first half. They were 10 of 21 from the free-throw line.

"I thought we didn't have any flow at all and didn't take care of the ball in the second half," Southeast coach Rick Ray said in a press release. "We had a lot of opportunities at the rim, but just didn't finish."

Tabb, who was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference's preseason player of the year, had a game-high 26 points and seven rebounds.

Thomas added 20 points for the Bulldogs. He was 4 of 8 from 3-point range.

A&M shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the second half and made 8 3-pointers.

Guard Antonius Cleveland led Southeast with 16 points and eight rebounds. He was 5 of 15 from the floor and 6 of 10 at the free-throw line.

Junior forward Joel Angus III finished with 14 points, on 6-of-12 shooting, and seven rebounds.

Coleman finished with nine points and nine rebounds in his first game back from a suspension while guards Marcus Wallace added eight points and Eric McGill had seven.

The Redhawks' lone senior and top returning outside shooter, Isiah Jones, was 0 of 4 from 3-point range and 0 of 4 on free throws. He had five assists.

Southeast outrebounded A&M 45-31.

Southeast travels to Edinburg, Texas, to face Texas Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday night to cap a four-game road stretch to start the season.

The Redhawks' home opener is Nov. 28 vs. Loyola Marymount.