Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team drops to 0-3 in OVC play

The Morehead State women's basketball team was held to 38.9 percent from the floor, missed all 13 of its 3-point attempts and turned the ball over 18 times, yet somehow it was the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks that left the Show Me Center with a loss.

The Redhawks remained winless in the Ohio Valley Conference with a 64-59 defeat on Thursday night.

"I told our team this, I don't want to be at a point where we're [thinking] we're at our last point and this is do or die. We're not there," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "We had a good non-conference record. We've won games. We know how to win. We are going through a little bit of a tough time right now. No one likes it. I don't like it. They don't like it. It's not fun. But we've got to figure out a way to get back to playing well together on both ends."

Southeast led by as many as five points after senior forward Hillary Lively made a jumper with 11 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the contest to take a 47-42 lead.

The Eagles (6-9, 2-0 OVC) scored the next 10 points over a two-minute span to make it 52-47.

Morehead pushed its advantage to 62-53 with 50 seconds left before Southeast junior guard Olivia Hackmann scored the next six points, including a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to cut it to 3, which was as close as it would get.

"I thought O [Hackmann] did a great job down the stretch of finishing, making shots, getting to the line," Southeast junior forward Connor King said. "She brought energy in that last couple minutes to really allow us to feel like we could do it, we could pull it off."

The Redhawks trailed by as many as six early in the first half, and didn't make a field goal until 4:32 into the game.

They gained their first lead of the game on a 3-pointer by senior guard Allyson Bradshaw with 50 seconds before halftime, but a free throw with less than a second left by Morehead guard Alesha Jones knotted at at 26-26 at the break.

"We were tied at halftime and we really didn't have the best half ever, so we just needed to step it up on the defensive end, bring energy. Our shots were going to fall," King said.

Southeast was 9 of 29 (31 percent) from the field in the first half and 1 of 4 from 3-point range while the Eagles were 7 of 24 (29.2 percent) and missed all six of their 3-point attempts.

"I think we took good shots that were makeable," King said. "We make those shots every day in practice. They just didn't fall today. I sometimes feel like we settled maybe for jumpers, but that happens. It happens in the flow of games. It's not like you're sitting there like, 'Oh, I'm 3 for 5, and I need to go to the [basket]. You don't know, so I don't think it was like, 'Oh my gosh, our shot selection is terrible.' I think those were makeable shots, and they just didn't go in."

Southeast broke the tie after half with a 3-pointer by King and didn't trail again until midway through the half.

Margenthaler, whose squad finished the night shooting 30 percent from the field (21 of 70) and was 12 of 19 from the free-throw line, thought his team's shot selection after it took a lead led to their demise.

"One thing we got ourself in a little bit of a bad habit of, and I've got to make a correction tomorrow, is that when we were up we were just consistently taking jump shots and quick shots," Margenthaler said. "That hurt us. We were unfortunately missing those quick jump shots after one pass and they were coming down in transition and making shots or driving to the rim and we were fouling and they were going to the free-throw line. They shot 27 free throws, so our defense wasn't real good."

Morehead was 22 of 27 from the charity stripe while shooting just 38.9 percent from the floor (21 of 54 attempts). The Eagles had three players in double figures -- Jones with 17, Shay Steele with 14 and Natalie Greenwell with 11.

Hackmann, who led Southeast with 18 points and six rebounds, said the team needs to work on its "toughness" on the defensive end.

"I know personally that there were a couple times where I had my hand on a rebound and it was knocked loose or I got hit and it fell out of my hands, so personally I think that being tougher is grabbing defensive rebounds, being able to transition out of that," said King, who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. "And I also think it's stepping up, and if they score two, three times in a row -- stepping up as a team and saying we're going to get a stop and doing it. And I think we can do it."

Southeast (7-9) returns to action against Eastern Kentucky at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Show Me Center.

"The thing that we do need to change is that we need to be a little more disciplined and take better shots," Margenthaler said. "When they're rolling, I say, 'Guys, if...you're making a few, you're open on that first shot, then take it.' But if not we've got to have our plays to be able to reverse the ball and go inside out, and that's where we're lacking right now is that we're not taking that. I tell them that in the offense they're going to be open probably on the first initial time off a ball screen, but again that might not be the best shot. That's where we've got to get better and we've got to continue to work on, and I've got to get a five out there that will really co-exist with one another and work together."