Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team falls short in final minute at Murray State

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team fell just short of notching its first road win this season.

Southeast and host Murray State battled to the closing seconds Saturday before the Racers squeezed out a 63-62 victory.

MSU got a basket and free throw with less than a minute left to break a 60-60 tie and then held on.

"We had a lot of opportunities to win this game," Southeast coach Ty Margenthaler said. "We did a great job coming back after we fell behind in the second half, but we were flat for portions of the game early. We have to learn to win games on the road because we have a lot of road games coming up."

The Redhawks (6-19, 3-9), who are shooting for the program's first Ohio Valley Conference tournament berth in three years, remained ninth in the 11-team conference. The top eight finishers qualify for the tournament. Southeast is eighth for tournament purposes because fourth-place SIU Edwardsville is ineligible for the event during its first year as a conference member.

Southeast fell to 0-5 in conference road games and 0-12 on the road overall. The Redhawks own a neutral site victory over Longwood.

The Redhawks and fifth-place Racers (11-14, 7-5) were tied 60-60 when sophomore guard Erica Burgess drove for a basket and was fouled with 51 seconds left. She hit the free throw to make it 63-60.

Southeast junior forward Bailie Roberts knocked down a jumper to pull the Redhawks within 63-62.

MSU then ran down the shot clock before attempting a 3-pointer. There was some debate whether the shot hit the rim. If it hadn't, there would have been a shot-clock violation and Southeast would have had plenty of time to attempt a winning basket.

The officials thought the shot did hit the rim because there was no stoppage in play. Southeast only could attempt a desperation half-court heave by the time it tracked down the rebound. The shot was well off the mark.

Junior forward Brittany Harriel led Southeast with 16 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. She blocked two shots.

Roberts added 14 points, and freshman guard Allyson Bradshaw scored 12 points by hitting 4 of 6 3-point shots.

Senior point guard Bianca Beck contributed eight points, eight rebounds and six assists against no turnovers.

Burgess led all scorers with 21 points, including 18 in the second half.

Southeast led for most of the first half and carried a 30-23 advantage into the break. The Redhawks went up by nine points early in the second half but fell behind by 10 points midway through the final period before rallying.

Southeast has another OVC road game Monday when it travels to SIU Edwardsville (14-9, 8-4) for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

The Cougars beat the Redhawks 58-43 on Jan. 16 in Cape Girardeau.