Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team cruises past Murray State

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team doesn't feel any pressure when it steps on the court for any Ohio Valley Conference contest as they sit near the bottom of the 12-team standings.

Southeast Missouri State's Jasmine Robinson drives against Murray State's Ajee Smith during the second half Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

That relaxed frame of mind led to the Redhawks' biggest conference win as they defeated the visiting Murray State Racers 88-66 on Saturday night at the Show Me Center.

"Right now we feel like we have nothing to lose," senior guard Jasmine Robinson said. "Just play hard. Just go out there and have fun and play. That's all we do, and luckily today it carried over."

Southeast and MSU were tied five times through the first 7 minutes, 44 second of the game before the Redhawks pulled ahead for good on a jumper by junior guard Olivia Hackmann that made it 18-16.

The basket sparked a 25-7 spurt for Southeast over the next 10 minutes to push the Redhawks' lead to 18 with 2:06 left in the half.

Southeast capitalized off seven Racers turnovers and allowed just two field goals in that stretch.

The Redhawks didn't allow an offensive rebound the entire half as they took a 43-29 advantage into the break.

Southeast, which had lost by five to the Racers nine days ago, credited limiting MSU's transition defense and drives to the basket as the key to slowing down their high-powered offense and creating turnovers.

"I think it was us just buckling down and doing it," Hackmann said. "We knew that they were going to drive and try to get in the paint. We were better in our gap defense, and that really hurt them because they threw the ball away quite a few times."

The Racers finished the game with 20 turnovers and Southeast outscored them 42-22 in the paint.

MSU pulled within nine points on a free throw with 15:39 left in the game, but the Redhawks rattled off seven unanswered to make it 58-40 four minutes later and led by double figures the remainder of the way.

A layup by Robinson, who finished with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting, with 32 seconds left gave Southeast its largest and final lead of 22 points.

The Redhawks shot 51.5 percent as a team in the game and their 88 points was a season high.

Southeast Missouri State's Erin Bollmann takes a shot as Murray State's Chanyere Hosey defends during the first half Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

Hackmann finished with 18 points while sophomore guard Brianna Mitchell had 13.

"I think it's the communication and then us working well together," Hackmann said. "I think when we make the extra pass and [our teammate] makes an open shot, that's what gets everyone pumped up."

MSU shot just 30.4 percent in the game and were 4 of 21 from behind the arc, but made 28 of 33 free-throw attempts.

Forward Ke'Shunan James finished with 20 points and guard LeAsia Wright had 14.

"The first time around we just played too much one-on-one defense, there wasn't any help," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "The "pack" defense, which we play, you've really got to be in the gaps. I thought our team defense was really good. We weren't playing one-on-one defense, we were playing really good team defense. That's what I was most proud of.

"I thought we got some steals in there, we got some deflections in there, I thought we rebounded well. I just think everything we tried to do was really flowing and working and it felt really good. We haven't had a win like this in quite awhile."

Southeast improved to 10-16 overall and 3-10 in the OVC while the Racers dropped to 7-19 and 2-11 in conference.

The Redhawks sit alone in 10th place of the standings with three regular-season games remaining. The top 8 teams earn spots in the OVC tournament.

Southeast travels to Charleston, Illinois, to face Eastern Illinois at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"We've still got a few ballgames left and crazy things happen, but the things I like is they fight until the end," Margenthaler said. "Make or miss they're competing. That's really a positive, positive sign, I feel like. Murray -- they're in the same boat as us, and I think that's two different ball teams right now at this stage in the year."