Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team's first OVC win arrives in OT

One of the first items Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coach Rick Ray acknowledged after his team's Sunday night game was that his 3-16 squad wasn't expected to do anything that it did.

The Redhawks held the visiting UT Martin Skyhawks to 15 points in the first half. Then they let a double-figure lead slip away in the second half, came back to tie it in the closing seconds of regulation before defeating UTM 68-60 in overtime at the Show Me Center for their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season.

"Most teams would just drop their head and just get resolved to another loss, so I'm really proud of the way our guys hung in their and stuck with things," Ray said. "...I think the way we played today is more representative of the way we should be playing and what you'll come to expect -- a team that's going to be very hard to play against, a team that's going to be hard to prepare for, but a team that other teams don't want to face because when they get done they're going to be physically and mentally exhausted."

The Redhawks led by as many as 19 in the contest, going up 28-9 on a 3-pointer by senior Isiah Jones with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left in the first half. Southeast held a 32-15 advantage at the break after holding UTM to 7-of-28 shooting and 0 of 9 from 3-point range.

The Redhawks were held to just four points for the first seven minutes of the second half during which the Skyhawks trimmed the deficit to six points.

Southeast Missouri State coach Rick Ray directs his team against UT Martin during the second half Saturday, Jan. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

"When we started the second half, I told them the way we lose this basketball game is that we don't execute on the offensive end. We would have to give them the game," Ray said. "And we did that. I thought our shot selection was poor. I thought we got hurried and rushed. I thought we had bad turnovers. I thought their pressure started to bother us a little bit and sped us up. I thought we kind of got discombobulated on the offensive end, and our bad execution on the offensive end contributed to them playing well on the offensive end. That was my No. 1 concern."

Southeast, which finished 8 of 31 from the field in the second half, pushed its lead back to 12 points, 45-33, after Joel Angus knocked down a pair of free throws following a technical foul on UTM's Jalen Variste with 8:42 remaining.

The Skyhawks scored the next 10 points, including a pair of 3s from Alex Anderson, to pull within two before Angus snapped the run.

Anderson answered with his, and UTM's fourth 3-pointer, and was fouled by Jones on the shot. He made the free throw and his four-point play tied it at 47-all with 5:35 to go.

UTM took its first lead of the game on a pair of Myles Taylor free throws and extended it as much as six, 53-47, with 3:38 left.

Southeast Missouri State's Trey Kellum takes a shot over UT Martin's Myles Taylor during the first half Saturday, Jan. 24, 2016 at the Show Me Center.Fred Lynch

Junior guard Antonius Cleveland, in his first game back after being sidelined for three games with a wrist injury, drained a 3-pointer and Angus knocked down a jumper to cut it to one, 53-52, with 2:13 left.

UTM maintained a one-point lead, 55-54, when it took a timeout with 15.3 seconds in regulation and seven on the shot clock. Twymond Howard missed the shot and after a lengthy discussion from the referees on whether it was a shot-clock violation or a jump ball on the rebound, the Skyhawks were awarded the ball with 10.3 seconds left on the jump ball.

Freshman guard Eric McGill got a steal, missed the layup, but Cleveland was there for the rebound and was fouled with 3.4 seconds left.

He made the first free throw to tie it before UTM took a timeout. His second attempt bounced off the rim, and the teams went into overtime tied at 55.

"I was just happy to have him back on the court," Ray said about Cleveland, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds. "What Antonius did coming back from an injury and then us saying, 'Well, we need to win the game, so we're going to put the ball in your hands and just go out there and make plays,' because we ran a lot of things for him to attack the basket, and he did a really good job of doing that. For a guy to come back that has lost the flavor for playing basketball because he's been out, and for him to come back and perform like that, just really proud of him."

Southeast never trailed in overtime. Junior forward Trey Kellum scored 1:01 into the five-minute session.

Howard split a pair of free throws to pull the Skyhawks within 57-56, but the Redhawks pulled away.

Kellum, who removed his protective face mask toward the end of regulation, scored six of his 11 points in overtime.

"I think it's just a confidence thing," Kellum said. "I think I was a little more relaxed without the face mask on. It was more of a mental thing for me, just taking it off."

The Redhawks, who held UTM to 33.8 percent from the field and 15.4 percent from beyond the arc, limited Howard, who averaged 17.6 ppg over his first five OVC games, to five points.

"I think all of our guys have to take credit because our goal, and what we always say, is 31," Ray said about the defensive effort. "What that means is when one person has the basketball, really three people are guarding him because there's somebody to their right in the gap and there's somebody to their left in the gap, so they're going to see two other people besides their defender. I've got to give our whole team credit for executing the switches, but more importantly being there for each other on help defense."

The Redhawks (4-16, 1-6 OVC) travel to Edwardsville, Illinois, to face SIU Edwardsville at 8 p.m. Thursday.

"I think what we really can take away from it is the last three days we really had some good practices, so I think we've just got to be consistent and just win every day," said Angus, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. "[New assistant] coach [Benjy] Taylor came in with a slogan, he was like, 'Just win today. Â… If you win today, you can win tomorrow.' So just like coming into practice every day and bringing that intensity, that's going to build momentum for us to be able to play well."