Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team snaps six-game slide against NAIA Hannibal-LaGrange

Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray came to the realization that something needed to change after his team's 36-point loss to Tennessee Tech on Saturday.

When his team had begun Ohio Valley Conference play three weeks before, he'd decided that his squad would not likely play man-to-man defense much the remainder of the year with a shortened roster, but after that loss to TTU he decided that's where the change was needed.

The Redhawks, playing solely man defense after weeks without it at all, got the defensive effort it needed in the second half of its Tuesday night game against NAIA Hannibal-LaGrange to defeat the Trojans 84-61 at the Show Me Center and snap a six-game losing streak.

"I was really disappointed with myself and the way I was coaching this team," Ray said. "I didn't think I was giving them a chance. I've always been a principle man-to-man coach and been under the tutelage of some really good coaches like [Purdue's] Matt Painter and [Clemson's] Brad Brownell, but I didn't think we had the personnel or the players in order to be a successful man-to-man team, and I kind of gave in to that.

"After that performance at Tennessee Tech where we gave up 25 points to one person in the first half, I was more pissed at myself than I was at the team, so I knew right then and there that we were going to get back to doing something that I was good at coaching, which is a man-to-man defense."

Ray thought that his players were a little disappointed early that there wasn't "a miraculous turnaround" with the defensive switch as the Redhawks went into halftime trailing 37-36 after a lights-out first half for the Trojans.

Southeast led by as many as 11 in the first half after a 3-pointer by freshman guard Eric McGill extended Southeast's lead to 26-15 with 9 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first half.

The Trojans drained four of their six first-half 3-pointers in the next four minutes to cut it to two. They'd take their first lead since the 15:11 mark after a 3-point play by De'Shawn Terrell with 1:41 left before halftime. It was HLG's only free-throw attempt of the night.

The Trojans went 6 of 10 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes and shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the half.

"I knew it would take some time kind of turning the wheels in the middle of the season and we'd struggle with it somewhat," Ray said, "but if we're going to have a good team, not just now, but also in the future, we've got to be a sound, principle man-to-man team."

Ray said the offense that the Trojans run -- the same offense John Beilein runs at Michigan -- is difficult to guard because of its flare screens and backdoor cuts. He made a few adjustments at halftime, but also used the break to reassure the players that it could work since they'd only spent one day practicing it.

"...Our center had to be much more aggressive as far as helping on backdoor cuts, but then going from helping on backdoor cuts to come out and pressure when we're switching ball screens and things like that. That was the one adjustment we made," Ray said. "The other thing is I thought we lost our initial ball pressure. I thought we pressured the basketball at the beginning of the game and then that really subsided. What we wanted to do was make sure we keep the pressure on the ball so they couldn't have the vision to see our mistakes on the backdoor cuts."

The Redhawks held HLG to 33.3 percent in the second half and the Trojans were just 2 of 11 from 3-point range in the second half.

HLG led by as many as four with 17:54 remaining in the contest. The Redhawks went up 50-48 with 14:51 left on an Isiah Jones jumper and led the rest of the way.

"They came in kind of hot," Southeast forward Trey Kellum said. "The thing was to be consistent on defense, so we just continued to put high hands, to cut them off, they eventually started missing shots."

Southeast shot a season-best 55.6 percent in the game. The Redhawks had 20 assists on 30 field goals.

They finished with a season-high 11 3-pointers on 20 attempts and shot 66.7 percent from beyond the arc in the second half.

Guards Jamaal Calvin and Jones finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Calvin was 4 of 6 from 3-point range while Jones made 2 of 4 attempts to reach 100 in his two-year Southeast career.

McGill had 13 points and six rebounds and made 3 of 6 3s.

Kellum led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Ray credited his team's offensive production and willingness to share the ball with helping fuel the defense.

"We kind of let the shots come to us," said McGill. "We tried to feed the post, get them a few touches and then we eventually knew they were going to sink in and wide open 3s were going to come, so we just shot and knocked them down."

The Redhawks, who improved to 3-16 on the season, return to Ohio Valley Conference action on Saturday when they host UT Martin at 4:15 p.m.

"I hope we all get to rolling now," Calvin said, "and start getting some wins in conference play."