Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team derailed early vs. Missouri State

Although it was impossible to know it at the time, the tone was set for the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team on Saturday when Jordan Hunter was called for a foul 10 seconds into the game.

Hunter was called for her second foul less than two minutes into the game, and the team fell into a hole it never climbed out of in a 77-66 road loss to Missouri State.

"It hurts us. Our senior point guard, a captain really missed the whole first half with two fouls," Southeast Missouri State coach Ty Margenthaler said. "I even gambled. I put her in the first half with two and played her a little bit. It really took her out of the game mentally, I believe, and it was hard on us."

The Redhawks never led in the game and trailed 34-21 at halftime after committing 13 of their 22 turnovers in the first half.

"I knew going in it was going to be a tough game because they have a great environment," Margenthaler said. "They play really well at home, but I thought overall we took some things out of the game that we can build on for sure. But two areas that really hurt us and hurt us right away were our turnovers and then rebounding. Those two things early in the first half really got us in that little hole.

"On a positive note, I was pleased that I thought our team responded to some adversity, and I thought we really gave ourself an opportunity in that second half to come back to at least be in shooting distance to maybe win the game but just couldn't get over the hump. We put them on the free-throw line too many times and just didn't get big stops when we needed to."

Southeast committed 27 fouls in the game and Missouri State made 27 of 39 free-throw attempts. The Redhawks were outrebounded 45-36 in the game, but Margenthaler noted improved play in the second half more than once.

"I just think being more aware and being a little smarter," Margenthaler said when asked about the improvements. "We talked about it all week long, about how they're one of the top teams with steals, they get to the free-throw line. We knew all that. They forced Missouri into 26 turnovers, so it wasn't a shock to us. I think it was just, 'OK, it hit us right away and just took a big, deep breath and [we] held our composure. I was glad that we kept fighting and didn't really give in. I was glad we fought."

Margenthaler said that despite the loss, there was a noticeable improvement in how his players responded to falling behind in the game.

"There's no question," he said. "To be honest, there were some games early in the year I thought once we hit it -- against a really good opponent -- once we hit some adversity, we kind of just didn't fight maybe as hard as I would like to or maybe be together as much as I would like them to. I thought today they stayed together. We shot 55 percent in the second half, and so I was pleased that they continued to battle and fight. We can definitely take that out of the game moving on to conference play."

It didn't help the Redhawks cause that leading scorer Kara Wright was held scoreless against the Bears and attempted just two shots.

"We talk about it every day," Margenthaler said. "We need the big three to be big, and she only has two attempts. That hurts. They're defending her really well knowing she's our offensive player, but it just wasn't getting her enough shots, it wasn't working maybe hard enough to get the shots -- a little bit of both, and that hurt us today."

Junior Allyson Bradshaw, a Notre Dame Regional High School graduate, scored a career-high 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting.

"When she's knocking down shots, things open up for us," Margenthaler said. "She did a nice job of attacking the basket as well. She wasn't just one dimension, she really scored from different areas on the court, which was really nice to see her do."

Patricia Mack added 12 points for the Redhawks.

Kenzie Williams scored 16 points to lead Missouri State (4-6), which had four players figure in double figures.

The Redhawks dropped to 4-9 with the loss and will have a long break before facing Belmont in its conference opener at 2 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Show Me Center.

"I think this year with kind of what we've gone through a little bit, I think it's a good thing," Margenthaler said about the extended break. "I think it's good for them and good for everyone to kind of get away for a few days and get our minds right, get our legs under us and really regroup."