Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team climbs back to .500

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team is close to achieving something the Redhawks haven't done in six years.

After Saturday's 73-56 victory over Illinois-Springfield, a Division II school, in front of 376 fans at the Show Me Center, the Redhawks are 6-6 on the season with one game remaining this month before they head into the conference portion of their schedule. A win next week against William Woods would push Southeast past the .500 mark before it opens Ohio Valley Conference play New Year's Day at Belmont.

Southeast hasn't been at the .500 mark this late in the season since 2008.

"It's a small step, but I'm really proud," said Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler, who is in his third year at the helm for the Redhawks. "I think someone told me it's been six years. I've only been here the three. Just keep on making improvements is what we're trying to do as a program, and I think we're doing that. Our non-conference schedule has been very difficult. We've been competing, and we're getting better."

Southeast used a pesky defense that came away with 11 steals and created 21 turnovers, which allowed the Redhawks to take a 42-32 halftime lead and cruise in the second half. Four players scored in double figures for the Redhawks, led by Olivia Hackmann's 15 points, 13 of which came in the first half.

Southeast Missouri State's Hillary Lively takes a shot as Illinois-Springfield's Caroline Kelty looks on during the first half Sunday at the Show Me Center.

Senior guard Jasmine Robinson scored eight of her 12 points in the second half, while fellow senior Allyson Bradshaw chipped in 11 points and junior forward Erin Bollmann added 10.

Southeast finished with four more field goals (24 to 20) than Illinois-Springfield and was 20 of 29 from the free-throw line, compared to 7 of 10 for the Prairie Stars.

"The thing I like about our stat sheet is we had four players in double digits, which is awfully nice," Margenthaler said. "We spread the basketball. And you can tell we were the aggressors by shooting 29 free throws. Anytime that we're doing that it means that we're getting touches in the paint either by penetration or by a post [player] catch. And that's awfully good."

Hackmann came off the bench in the first half to spark a 12-3 run that turned a 19-19 tie into a 31-22 Redhawks lead. The junior guard sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a 3-pointer by Bradshaw as Southeast opened up a lead it never relinquished.

"I think we were just feeling it, I guess," Hackmann said. "We were distributing the ball well. I feel like whenever we drive and make a good [pass], it's freeing us up and it's giving us more confidence."

Southeast hit 15 of 29 shots (51.7 percent) from the field in the first half and finished 24 of 55 (43.6 percent) for the game, the first time in three games the Redhawks shot better that 40 percent from the field.

"I think the big spurt was in that first half when we got Olivia going and we got Allyson Bradshaw going," Margenthaler said. "We hit three 3s right in a row."

Southeast continued its defensive assault in the second half, harassing the Prairie Stars into 8-of-24 shooting (33 percent) from the field after intermission.

"I thought the big adjustment that we made defensively was that we just started pressuring the basketball more, being more alert, we're talking, and our hands are up," Margenthaler said. "We had a lot of deflections. *... That allowed us to get a transition and open up some shooters and really get us to the free-throw line in the second half, which was big."

Southeast scored 22 points off turnovers, which allowed the Redhawks to put the game away in the second half.

"We started getting stops on the defensive end," Hackmann said. "And then we started scoring on the offensive end. *... The defensive stops and steals, that gave us easy buckets on the other end."

Illinois-Springfield coach Chad Oletzke admitted his team's turnovers were too much to overcome as the Prairie Stars dropped to 4-4 on the season.

"We're running a new offense and we're trying to work a couple new players into our team," Oletzke said. "But [Southeast's] defense had something to do with [the turnovers]. They played very good defense and things got away from us in the second half."