Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team rallies to defeat EIU

Southeast Missouri State walk-on JT Jones had yet to play in an Ohio Valley Conference contest.

The last time the freshman from Sikeston even played in a game was on Dec. 28.

Yet, when the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team faced a double-figure deficit with 9 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in its game against Eastern Illinois on Saturday night, Southeast coach Dickey Nutt turned to Jones.

Jones provided just the spark the Redhawks needed as they came from behind to win 68-64 at the Show Me Center.

"This is what I always know about JT: I see every day that he's dependable, I see every day that he's undersized, but he holds his own. He's 6-foot-4, but he probably plays about 6-foot-6, 6-foot-7," Nutt said. "He comes from an outstanding program that wins with Coach [Gregg] Holifield, so we knew that he had that capability of doing some things for us.

"I also knew that he's a crowd favorite, and I thought that played a little bit of a role, too, because I needed everything and anything to jumpstart our team and to get it going. I just felt like if we stayed status quo at the 12-minute mark, this is a loss because we couldn't get anything going."

Once Jones subbed in, the Redhawks rattled off a 16-4 spurt that put them ahead for good.

He only finished with two points and a steal in his 11 minutes off the bench.

After senior forward Nino Johnson came up with the ball on a missed basket by the Redhawks, he dished it to Jones, who scored with 3:51 remaining to make it 56-54.

Southeast never gave up the lead the remainder of the game.

Southeast Missouri State's Marcus Wallace soars for a layup after a steal as Eastern Illinois' Luke Norman defends during the second half Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

"Did he score the most points? No. Did he get the most rebounds? No. No. No. No on all those. It was the fire," Nutt said. "It was I knew that our team respects him. They want him to do well. They know he comes out and works extremely hard every day, every night, and I'm not so sure he'd gotten in a game. In fact, he was sick going to Austin Peay, didn't even make the trip. But tonight was his night, and he's going to see some more time because he just has that knack. He had a big steal at half court, that was huge. He had a big ... putback, on 7-footers, I might add, and that was big."

Jones wasn't the only freshman that played a considerable role for the Redhawks.

Freshman guard Marcus Wallace played 31 minutes off the bench and led Southeast with a career-high 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting. He had three steals and three assists and knocked down the final free throws of the game with 10.3 seconds left to seal the win.

"Very proud of Marcus Wallace. Talk about a star is born tonight," Nutt said. "Big game -- hit big shots, free throws, defensive plays, all over the floor, not to mention a 4.0 student on top of that. He certainly is deserving. He played the second-most minutes tonight besides Nino Johnson, and look for that to happen again."

EIU got as close as one point with three minutes left, but a dunk by Johnson and a 3-pointer by Bradley pushed the lead back to six.

Bradley, who missed Thursday's game with a concussion, had to be re-evaluated just prior to Saturday's game after colliding with a teammate during warmups. He finished with nine points in 19 minutes off the bench and hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final minute.

Southeast Missouri State's Nino Johnson dunks against Eastern Illinois with 2:36 remaining Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

"Just to handle the ball, and don't play not to lose. Play to win," Wallace said of Nutt's message in the final minutes. "If we play not to lose, then we play cautious, and that's when people get steals and get on runs and come back and win the game. Really we just needed to handle the ball and stay together."

The Panthers held a 32-22 lead at halftime. They shot 43.5 percent from the field and knocked down 5 of 8 3-point attempts during the half.

Meanwhile, Southeast shot 31 percent, was 2 of 9 from beyond the arc and made it to the charity stripe just three times in the half.

"Energy had been lacking in the first half," senior guard Jarekious Bradley said. "The first half of this game, we couldn't get nothing going. But they came in and got that spark off the bench."

The Redhawks trailed by as many as 12 points with 10:36 remaining in the game after a 3-pointer by forward Trae Anderson, who scored a game-high 25 points and had 12 rebounds for the Panthers.

"We were playing in mud for 30 minutes, and I mean that by it just seemed we were a step slow in everything we did," Nutt said. "Every decision, every shot, every pass, every defensive play, we just felt like we were in mud."

That mud disappeared with about 10 minutes left, and the Redhawks improved to 11-13 and 5-6 in the OVC.

"I thought we played with that fire and hungriness that we needed to win the game, and we certainly snuck out of here with a win," Nutt said.

Southeast hosts UT Martin (15-8, 7-3 OVC) at 8 p.m. Thursday night.

"Let's win these last four," Wallace said. "Just keep going and not look back."