Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team's comeback falls short

~ The Southeast men's basketball team spotted Tennessee State a 24-point lead and lost 57-52

The Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team dug itself a massive hole Thursday night.

Southeast nearly climbed all the way out, but host Tennessee State held on for a 57-52 victory in Nashville, Tenn.

Southeast, which had its two-game winning streak snapped, fell to 9-20 overall and 6-11 in OVC play.

The Redhawks, who already had locked up the program's first Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth since the 2006-07 season, are tied for seventh place in the 10-team league with Tennessee-Martin.

TSU (13-15, 9-8), which swept the season series from Southeast, moved into a fifth-place tie with Eastern Kentucky.

There is a chance Southeast and TSU will meet Wednesday in the first round of the OVC tournament in Nashville. Southeast's other possible first-round opponent is EKU.

Southeast suffered through a dismal first half Thursday. TSU built a quick 10-2 lead and made it 22-6 after less than nine minutes of play.

It was 34-10 late in the opening period before the Redhawks pulled within 34-14 at the intermission.

"I'm disappointed in the way we started," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "They were on fire and we didn't play with that energy and passion.

"It took us 20 minutes to get out of the blocks. That's disappointing."

The Redhawks steadily chipped away and made it 49-44 with less than four minutes left.

TSU went back ahead 51-44 but Southeast kept coming.

Two free throws by redshirt freshman point guard Lucas Nutt with 1 minute, 55 seconds left made it 51-48.

A tip-in by senior forward Cameron Butler 43 seconds later pulled Southeast within 51-50.

Then came one of the most important calls of the night.

With the TSU shot clock running down, Southeast was whistled for a hand-check foul against junior guard Will Peters.

Peters made both free throws with 41 seconds left to put TSU up 53-50.

Southeast missed a 3-pointer and the Tigers iced the victory by making four straight free throws for a 57-50 advantage.

Nutt's layup just before the buzzer accounted for the final points.

"I was proud of the way we played the last 20 minutes," coach Nutt said. "You just can't afford to spot a team 20 points and expect to win."

Nutt paced Southeast with 15 points and five assists while playing the entire 40 minutes. He had 14 second-half points.

Junior forward Leon Powell scored all 14 of his points in the second half after he was plagued by first-half foul trouble.

Sophomore guard Marland Smith added 10 points but hit just 4 of 19 from the field, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

Junior guard Marcus Brister pulled down 10 rebounds.

Southeast shot a sizzling 57.7 percent in the second half to finish at 44.7 percent.

Peters led TSU with 14 points. The Tigers shot 51.9 percent in the opening period but finished at just 38.2 percent.

Southeast ends the regular season Saturday night at Austin Peay (18-12, 12-5), which is tied for second and still has a chance to gain a share of the OVC regular-season title.

The Redhawks have not won at Austin Peay since the 1998-99 season. The Govs beat the Redhawks 78-60 on Dec. 2 in Cape Girardeau.