Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team finishes tied for seventh in OVC

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team ended the regular season by losing at a place it has had virtually no success.

Austin Peay routed the Redhawks 75-52 on Saturday night in Clarksville, Tenn., where Southeast has not beaten the Governors since the 1998-99 campaign.

Southeast fell to 9-21 overall and 6-12 in Ohio Valley Conference play to wind up tied for seventh in the 10-team league.

The Redhawks already had clinched the program's first OVC tournament berth since the 2006-07 season.

Southeast, seeded seventh for the eight-team event in Nashville, Tenn., will play sixth-seeded Eastern Kentucky at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the opening round at Municipal Auditorium.

"This season's over and we have a brand new season ahead of us," said Southeast coach Dickey Nutt, whose squad has lost two straight after a two-game winning streak. "We're part of March Madness, which was our goal."

Austin Peay (19-12, 13-5) wound up tied for second in the OVC after sweeping the season series from the Redhawks and beating Southeast for the 22nd time in the past 24 meetings.

Southeast dug itself a big early hole for the second straight game.

But unlike Thursday's loss at Tennessee State, when the Redhawks fell behind 34-10 before pulling within a point late, Southeast never got back into Saturday's contest.

Austin Peay, which never trailed, built a 19-7 lead midway through the first half. The closest Southeast got the rest of the way was 10 points.

The Govs, ahead 33-21 at halftime, scored the first eight points of the second half to go up 41-21. The margin never dipped under 17 points and the biggest lead was 24 points.

"Austin Peay is a very good team, a very established program," Nutt said.

Sophomore guard Marland Smith paced Southeast with 12 points but hit just 5 of 17 field-goal attempts. Smith also recorded eight rebounds and three assists.

Junior guard Marcus Brister had 10 points and five assists. Redshirt freshman point guard Lucas Nutt added 10 points.

Junior forward Leon Powell, limited to 23 minutes by foul trouble, scored just nine points while grabbing nine rebounds.

Senior guard Anthony Allison, who coach Nutt said was slowed by the flu, went 0 for 9 from the field and scored only three points.

"Anthony wasn't himself," Nutt said.

Junior guard Tyshwan Edmondson led Austin Peay with 17 points. The Govs shot 47.5 percent and held Southeast to 32.7 percent. They also outrebounded the Redhawks 47-36.

Now the Redhawks will turn their attention to the OVC tournament after increasing their win total by two games and their conference finish by two spots from Nutt's first Southeast team that went 7-23 last year, including 3-15 in the OVC.

"We have made some baby steps this year." said Nutt, whose squad has had only eight available players for the past several weeks. "Everything that could go wrong did in terms of injuries and other things," Nutt said. "I told our guys I was very proud of them for fighting through to find a way to win some games and get into the tournament. Anything can happen in the tournament."